New law blurs line between marriage, common-law relationship
Posted March 18, 2013 7:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Playing house is becoming a lot more like being married, thanks to provincial legislation taking effect today.
The Family Law Act replaces the 35-year-old Family Relations Act, further blurring the line between marriage and common-law relationships.
“Common-law couples, after they’ve lived together for a two-year period, can then, if their relationship breaks down, claims against each other,” says Jonathan Lazar, head of the family law group at the Vancouver law firm Watson Goepel LLP.
“The difference being is they’ll share the property or the gains in the property from the time they were together.”
Lazar calls this is a progressive change that recognizes what has become a growing reality in society.
“There’s a vast percentage of people that live in common-law, or what we call marriage-like relationships. They’ve chosen, for whatever reason, not to get married, and in a lot of situations, those people were, in a sense, penalized by not having the equal protections as if they had been married.”
However, if you have been in a common-law relationship for less than two years but have a child together, you will have to follow the parts of the Act dealing with children, child support, and spousal support.
Experts say you can protect yourself by drawing up a co-habitation agreement; much like a pre-nup, it sets out some ground rules for if and when something other than death does you part.
