Section 21J — Property (Relationships) Act 1976: Court may set agreement aside if would cause serious injustice

21J Court may set agreement aside if would cause serious injustice (1) Even though an agreement satisfies the requirements of section 21F, the Court may set the agreement aside if, having regard to all the circumstances, it is satisfied that giving effect to the agreement would cause serious injustice. (2) The Court may exercise the power in subsection (1) in the course of any proceedings under this Act, or on application made for the purpose. (3) This section does not limit or affect any enactment or rule of law or of equity that makes a contract void, voidable, or unenforceable on any other ground. (4) In deciding, under this section, whether giving effect to an agreement made under section 21 or section 21A or section 21B would cause serious injustice, the Court must have regard to— (a) the provisions of the agreement: (b) the length of time since the agreement was made: (c) whether the agreement was unfair or unreasonable in the light of all the circumstances at the time it was made: (d) whether the agreement has become unfair or unreasonable in the light of any changes in circumstances since it was made (whether or not those changes were foreseen by the parties): (e) the fact that the parties wished to achieve certainty as to the status, ownership, and division of property by entering into the agreement: (f) any other matters that the Court considers relevant. (5) In deciding, under this section, whether giving effect to an agreement made under section 21B would cause serious injustice, the Court must also have regard to whether the estate of the deceased spouse or partner has been wholly or partly distributed. Sections 21A to 21T were inserted, as from 1 August 2001, by section 21(1) Property (Relationships) Amendment Act 2001 (2001 No 5). See section 21(3) of that Act which states that for the purposes of applying Part 6 of the principal Act during the period beginning on 1 August 2001 and ending with the close of 31 January 2002, all terms used in that Part have the meanings given to them in sections 2 to 2D of the principal Act (as substituted by section 8 ) as if section 8 were in force during that period. See Part 9 of this Act as to the transitional and saving provisions. Subsection (5) was amended, as from 26 April 2005, by section 3(2) Property (Relationships) Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 19) by substituting the word “ partner ” for the words “ de facto partner ” .