Can I cancel our binding financial agreement because my ex hid his debts?

The situation

I am living in Victoria and I am trying to figure out what to do regarding a financial agreement my ex-partner and I signed back in June 2018 when we first moved in together. At the time, we both signed a document stating we would keep our own assets separate if we ever split up. Since we separated six months ago, I have discovered that he actually owed over $150,000 to several private lenders and a business partner, which he never mentioned to me when we signed the paperwork. He told me during our discussions that he had no significant debts and that his finances were completely clear. I have already tried talking to him about this, but he just says the agreement is legally binding and that his past debts shouldn't affect our current split. I feel like I was misled because if I had known about that massive amount of money he owed, I never would have agreed to those specific terms. I am worried that his creditors might come after our shared assets now. Is there any way to have that old agreement thrown out by a court because he wasn't honest about his financial situation?

Detailed Analysis

Under the Family Law Act 1975, a binding financial agreement is not necessarily permanent if certain conditions are met. Because you discovered that your ex-partner hid over $150,000 in debt from you when you signed your agreement in June 2018, you may have grounds to ask a court to set it aside.

A court has the power to intervene if "the agreement was obtained by fraud (including non‑disclosure of a material matter)"^[1]. In legal terms, fraud involves intentional deception. Non-disclosure of a material matter means failing to reveal a fact that is important enough to have changed your decision to sign the document. Since you stated you would not have agreed to the specific terms if you had known about the $150,000 debt, this debt could be considered a material matter.

Additionally, the court can set aside an agreement if "a party... engaged in conduct that was, in all the circumstances, unconscionable"^[1]. Unconscionable conduct refers to behavior that is so harsh or unfair that it goes against good conscience.

Whether the agreement can be thrown out is not guaranteed. It depends on whether a judge views the omission of the debt as a deliberate attempt to deceive you or as a material fact that fundamentally changed the nature of the agreement. The law does not automatically cancel agreements just because new information comes to light; you must prove the specific grounds for setting it aside.

While you are concerned about creditors, the law also allows for setting aside agreements if they were entered into for the purpose of "defrauding or defeating a creditor or creditors"^[1]. This means if the agreement was designed to hide assets from people he owed money to, the court may also take that into account.

Statutory Citations

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