Living Together but Not Married? What Separation Means for Your Property in BC

It is one of the most common misunderstandings we hear: "We were never married, so there is nothing to divide." In British Columbia that stopped being true in 2013. Once a couple has lived together in a marriage-like relationship for two years, the Family Law Act treats them as spouses for property purposes, with the same rights and obligations as a married couple.

This article explains what that means in practice: what counts as family property, what is excluded, when a court will depart from an equal split, and the time limit for making a claim that unmarried spouses in particular tend to miss.

Two years changes everything

Under BC's Family Law Act, property division applies to married spouses and to unmarried spouses who have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years. There is no registration, no ceremony and no form to sign. The anniversary simply arrives, and from that point the couple's property is governed by the same rules that apply to a marriage.

Whether a relationship was "marriage-like", and exactly when it began and ended, can themselves be disputed. Couples who kept separate finances, or who moved in together gradually, sometimes find that the start date matters a great deal.

What gets divided: family property

The starting point in the Act is equality. On separation, each spouse has a right to an undivided half interest in all family property and is equally responsible for family debt, regardless of who used the property or who contributed to it.

Family property is defined broadly. It is, in essence, everything either spouse owns on the date of separation, whichever name it is in: the home, bank accounts, investments, vehicles, pension entitlements and interests in a business. It also includes something people often overlook: the amount by which excluded property has increased in value during the relationship.

What stays yours: excluded property

The Act then carves out categories of excluded property, which belong to the spouse who brought them in. The main ones are:

• property a spouse owned before the relationship began;
• inheritances and gifts from third parties received during the relationship;
• certain damage awards and insurance proceeds, other than amounts compensating for lost income or a loss shared by both spouses;
• property that can be traced back to any of the above.

Two practical points follow. First, the exclusion covers the value at the start, not the growth: if a condo worth $400,000 when you moved in together is worth $650,000 at separation, the $400,000 is excluded but the $250,000 increase is family property. Second, the spouse claiming an exclusion has to prove it. Without statements showing what you owned and what it was worth when the relationship began, an exclusion can be very hard to establish years later, and moving excluded money into a jointly owned home can complicate matters further.

Unequal division is the exception, not the rule

A court can order something other than an equal split, but only where equal division would be significantly unfair. The Act lists the factors it considers, including the length of the relationship, a spouse's contribution to the other's career, how debts were incurred, changes in value after separation, and whether a spouse improperly reduced or disposed of property. The threshold is deliberately high; a feeling that the split is somewhat unfair is not enough.

The deadline most people miss

Here is where unmarried spouses are treated differently, and not in their favour. A married spouse has two years from the date of divorce to start a court proceeding for property division or spousal support. An unmarried spouse has two years from the date of separation. Because many separating couples take time to sort themselves out before thinking about lawyers, that period can run out quietly.

The clock pauses while the spouses are engaged in family dispute resolution with a family dispute resolution professional, such as mediation, but it does not pause for informal conversations across the kitchen table. And because the two years run from separation, a disagreement about when the separation actually happened can decide whether a claim is still open.

What to do early

• Record the date of separation in writing, even in a simple message, so there is no dispute later.
• Gather statements for every account and asset as close as possible to the start of the relationship and the date of separation.
• Do not move, sell or run down assets while things are unresolved; it tends to make the eventual division more complicated, not less.
• Get advice on the time limit before the first anniversary of separation, not the second.

Most separating couples resolve property by agreement rather than in court. Knowing what the Act would do is what makes a fair agreement possible, and a properly drafted separation agreement is far harder to unpick later than a handshake.

Separating after living together? Find out where you stand

Our family law lawyers can tell you whether the two-year rule applies to your relationship, what is likely to be family property and what is excluded, and how much time you have. An early conversation often saves a great deal later.

Call 604-259-2844 or send us a message to arrange a confidential consultation at our Vancouver office.