Recent legislation that made the status of marriage available to same-sex couples has driven updates to South Australian property legislation, which is now more gender neutral.
The legislative changes were detailed in the Notice To Lodging Parties 27 April 2020 No 229, which the Registrar-General of the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, Jenny Cottnam issued.
These updates were to the Real Property Act 1886 and the Law of Property Act 1936.
Some noteworthy updates include:
- replacing “husband or wife” with “spouse” in section 111 of the Real Property Act 1886
- replacing “himself” with “themselves” and “him” with “the person” in section 40 of the Law of Property Act 1936.
Legislative amendments to the Law of Property Act 1936 also removed obsolete language.
The amended legislation, the Statutes Amendment (Legalisation of Same Sex Marriage Consequential Amendments) Act 2019 and the Married Persons (Separate Legal Status) Act 2019, commenced on 1 May 2020.
To find out more about the amendments, contact the Office of the Registrar-General South Australia via DPTI.RegistrarGeneral@sa.gov.au or read the Notice To Lodging Parties 27 April 2020 No 229.
