A cohabitation agreement in BC sets your terms before living together makes you spouses

When does living together make us spouses in BC?

Under the Family Law Act, you become spouses after living together in a marriage-like relationship for a continuous period of at least two years. For spousal support, a shorter marriage-like relationship counts if you have a child together. Nothing is registered or filed; if the question is ever disputed, a court decides it from how you actually lived.

Marriage-like is a judgment about the whole relationship, not a checklist. Courts look at a shared home, how money and expenses were handled, whether you presented as a couple, care for each other in illness, and how you described the relationship on tax returns and insurance forms. No single factor decides it, and couples with separate bank accounts can still qualify.

The clock runs from the start of the marriage-like relationship, which can be hard to pin down when dating turned gradually into living together. An agreement can record the date the couple treat as the start, which is useful evidence later.

Unmarried couples came under BC's property division rules when the Family Law Act took effect on 18 March 2013; before that, an unmarried partner generally needed a trust or unjust enrichment claim to share in the other's property.

What happens if we live together and never sign anything?

Before the two-year mark (and without a child together), the Family Law Act's property and support rules don't apply, and each partner generally keeps what is in their own name. Once you are spouses, family property and family debt are shared equally on separation, including growth in a home one partner already owned, and either can claim spousal support.

• Property: before two years, each keeps what is in their own name, subject to ordinary property and trust law; after two years, property either owns at separation is family property shared equally unless excluded.
• A home one partner already owned: before two years, it stays the owner's; after, its starting value is excluded but growth during the relationship is shared.
• Debts: before two years, each answers for debts in their own name; after, debt taken on during the relationship is family debt shared between them, though the lender's rights don't change.
• Spousal support: before two years, generally no claim without a child together; after, either can claim, based on need, ability to pay and the roles each played.
• Inheritance without a will: before two years, no share under the Wills, Estates and Succession Act; after, the survivor inherits as a spouse.
• Limitation period: once spouses separate, the s. 198 clock for property and spousal support claims starts at the date of separation.

What can a cohabitation agreement decide?

A cohabitation agreement can set how property and debt would be divided if you separate, which assets stay with the partner who brought them in, how a shared home is split, and whether either partner pays spousal support. It can't bind parenting arrangements made before separation or hold child support below the Federal Child Support Guidelines.

Typical terms: a schedule of what each partner owns on moving in, with values; how payments toward a home owned by one partner count; how a jointly bought home is divided, including buyout rights; and whether either will claim support. An agreement signed before the two-year mark can cover the time before the Act applies too, so one set of terms governs throughout.

Property terms bind if the agreement is in writing, signed by both partners and witnessed (s. 93); separate lawyers and full disclosure make it much harder to challenge. Terms about future children can be recorded as intentions only, because parenting arrangements agreed before separation don't bind (s. 44).

I'm moving into my partner's home. Do we need a cohabitation agreement?

Usually, yes, because each of you has something to settle. After two years, growth in the home's value during the relationship is shared by default, which matters to the owner. The partner moving in, who may pay toward the mortgage, strata fees or renovations, has no agreed credit for those payments unless an agreement sets one.

For the owner, the question is whether to keep the home's growth out of family property, share part of it, or share it fully. For the partner moving in, it is what their payments are: rent with no claim to equity, a loan, or a contribution that earns a share. Renovations paid by the partner who isn't on title raise the same question.

The agreement should also say how payments are recorded: a running ledger, a fixed monthly amount treated as rent, or a formula for a share of growth. Principal payments are often treated differently from strata fees, taxes and utilities. Keep the records with the agreement.

Should we sign an agreement before buying a home together?

Yes, particularly when the down payments are unequal. Without an agreement, a home bought together during the relationship is generally shared equally once you are spouses, whoever paid more. An agreement can give each partner's down payment back first, and the title should match it: tenants in common in set shares, or joint tenants where survivorship is the intention.

Title is registered at the Land Title Office in one of two forms. Joint tenants own the whole together, and the survivor takes it outside the will. Tenants in common each own a share, which can be unequal and passes under each owner's will. When the title is silent, BC law presumes a tenancy in common.

The agreement and the title should tell the same story. If an agreement returns one partner's larger down payment first but title is a joint tenancy, survivorship may settle ownership on a death whatever the agreement says. Adding a partner to title on a home one of you owns is a transfer, and Property Transfer Tax relief turns on whether that Act treats you as spouses and how the home is used. The guide to buying a home together unmarried covers the purchase.

What happens to our cohabitation agreement if we get married?

Generally it keeps working. The Family Law Act applies the same agreement rules to married and unmarried spouses, so a cohabitation agreement that meets the formalities can continue to govern after the wedding. It is safer for the agreement to say so expressly, and to review it when you marry, in case your finances or plans have changed.

Marriage adds two things an unmarried couple doesn't face: a divorce under the federal Divorce Act if the marriage ends, and a limitation period for property and support claims that runs from the divorce order rather than from separation. The marriage agreements page covers the planning a wedding brings.