BC Common-Law Status: Property, Support, and Deadlines

In British Columbia, common-law status means that once you and your partner have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for two continuous years, the provincial Family Law Act treats you as spouses, with rights to an equal share of family property, spousal support, and inheritance that closely mirror those of married couples. There is no registration, no ceremony, and no paperwork. The status attaches automatically, and so do the deadlines and tax consequences that come with it.

When You Become Common-Law in BC

Section 3 of the Family Law Act sets the main threshold: two continuous years of living together in a marriage-like relationship. Cross that line and the full range of property and support rules applies to you.

A second path exists for couples with a child together. If you live in a marriage-like relationship and have a child by birth or adoption, you qualify as a spouse for spousal support purposes before hitting two years. That shortcut does not extend to property or debt. To claim a share of your partner’s assets or split joint debts, you still need the full two years of cohabitation, whether or not you have children.

One caution about timelines. The Canada Revenue Agency uses a shorter federal rule: 12 continuous months of living in a conjugal relationship, or immediately if you have a child together.¹ You can owe the CRA a status update and be filing as a couple a full year before BC gives you any property rights. Mixing the two timelines is a common mistake.

What Counts as a Marriage-Like Relationship

If your partner disputes the relationship or its length, courts look at overlapping indicators rather than any single piece of proof. Joint leases, mortgages, utility accounts, and bank statements demonstrate financial entanglement. Tax returns listing each other as common-law partners are particularly persuasive, because they show how you presented the relationship to government. Social evidence matters too: correspondence to both of you, shared holidays, introductions as a couple. Not every indicator has to be present. A couple might keep separate bank accounts but share a home and raise children together. Judges weigh the whole arrangement.

What You Own and Owe Together

Once you qualify as a spouse, BC gives each partner an equal right to all family property and equal responsibility for all family debt on separation. Section 81 of the Family Law Act is explicit: each spouse has an undivided half interest in family property as a tenant in common, regardless of whose name is on the title or who contributed more.² The rule reaches real estate, business interests, pension entitlements, retirement savings, corporate shares, and money in bank accounts.

This is a default, not a mandate. A cohabitation or separation agreement can override it, and a court can order an unequal division if a 50/50 split would be significantly unfair. Absent either, the equal split is the starting point for every negotiation.

Excluded Property

Not everything goes into the pool. Section 85 keeps several categories with the spouse who owns them:

Property you owned before the relationship began.
Inheritances and gifts from someone other than your partner.
Damage awards and insurance proceeds, except portions that replaced income or compensated both spouses.
A beneficial interest in a discretionary trust settled by someone else, to which you did not contribute.

There is a significant catch. While the excluded asset itself stays yours, any increase in its value during the relationship is family property and gets divided.² If you brought a condo worth $400,000 into the relationship and it is worth $600,000 at separation, the $200,000 gain is on the table. The spouse claiming the exclusion carries the burden of proving it qualifies.

Family Debt

Debt incurred for a family purpose during the relationship is split equally, just like property. Credit card balances used for household expenses, joint lines of credit, and mortgages on shared property all fall into this category. Debts that clearly benefit only one spouse, or debts run up recklessly as the relationship was ending, may be treated differently by a court.

Spousal Support

A common-law spouse can claim spousal support to address financial imbalances caused by the relationship. The Family Law Act sets four objectives: recognizing economic advantages or disadvantages created by the relationship, sharing the financial consequences of caring for children, relieving hardship from the breakup, and promoting self-sufficiency within a reasonable time.³

Amount and duration depend on how long you lived together, the roles each partner played, and current finances. A partner who put a career on hold for the relationship is more likely to receive support, and for longer, than someone who worked independently throughout. Couples with a child together can claim spousal support before the two-year mark, but property division still requires the full two years.

Child Support

Child support obligations sit entirely outside the question of spousal status. Both parents owe support whether or not they ever lived together. BC follows the Federal Child Support Guidelines, and the base monthly amount is calculated using income-based tables tied to the paying parent’s annual income.⁴ Extraordinary expenses such as childcare, medical costs, and extracurricular activities are shared proportionally on top.

What Happens If Your Partner Dies

This is where common-law partners are most often caught off guard. Under BC’s Wills, Estates and Succession Act, a common-law partner of at least two years qualifies as a spouse for inheritance purposes.⁵ If your partner dies without a will, you inherit as a married spouse would.

The specific share depends on descendants. If there are none, the whole estate goes to you. If the descendants are children of both you and the deceased, you receive the household furnishings, a preferential share of $300,000 (or a prescribed greater amount), and then split the remainder equally with the descendants. If the descendants are not your children, the preferential share drops to $150,000.⁵

These rights disappear the moment the relationship ends. Under the Act, common-law spouses cease being spouses once one or both of them terminate the relationship. Married couples keep spousal status for estate purposes until a property-triggering event. If you separate from a common-law partner and they die the next day, you may have no inheritance claim at all. A will is essential for common-law couples who want certainty.

CPP Credit Splitting

After separation, either former partner can apply to split the Canada Pension Plan credits earned during your time together. You must have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months and been living apart for at least 12 consecutive months when you apply.⁶ The application has to be made within 48 months of the date you began living apart. Miss that window and the right is gone unless your former partner agrees in writing to waive the time limit.

BC is unusual on one point. A written agreement between spouses can prevent a CPP credit split here if it explicitly addresses pension credits. In most other provinces, private agreements cannot block a split.⁶

Telling the CRA

Once you meet the CRA’s 12-month threshold, you must notify the agency by the end of the month following the change. Become common-law in March, and the deadline is the end of April.⁷ You can update online through your CRA account (processed immediately), by phone, or by mailing Form RC65 (four to six weeks). The CRA advises against waiting until tax season.

Combined household income then affects eligibility for income-tested benefits. Common-law partners can also access the Canada caregiver credit if one has a physical or mental impairment. Both partners have to file returns every year to keep receiving benefit payments.

Cohabitation Agreements

A cohabitation agreement lets you opt out of the default 50/50 split or set your own terms for support. Under section 92, spouses can agree to divide property and debt unequally, exclude assets from the pool entirely, or include items that otherwise wouldn’t count as family property.²

To hold up, the agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties, and witnessed by at least one person (the same person can witness both signatures). Both partners must provide full and honest disclosure of income, expenses, assets, and debts before signing.⁸ Independent legal advice isn’t technically required, but skipping it is one of the fastest ways to get an agreement thrown out. A court can set it aside if one partner failed to disclose significant assets, took advantage of the other’s vulnerability, or if the other partner didn’t understand what they were signing.²

Even a properly executed agreement can be overturned if a court later finds it significantly unfair, taking into account how much time has passed and how much the parties relied on its terms. Agreements cannot limit child support, and any terms about parenting arrangements can only be made after separation.

Deadlines That End Your Rights

The clocks for common-law couples are unforgiving. Miss them and the underlying right is usually gone.

Property, debt, and pension division: start a court proceeding within two years of the date you separated.⁹
Spousal support: same two-year limit from separation.⁹
CPP credit splitting: 48 months from the date you began living apart.⁶
CRA status notification: by the end of the month following the change.

The two-year clock for common-law couples runs from the date of separation, not from any court order. Married couples measure from divorce or annulment. Common-law partners don’t go through a formal divorce, so the separation date itself is the trigger. Pinning that date down matters.

Separation, Including Under the Same Roof

You do not need to move out to be legally separated. A common-law relationship can end while both partners continue living in the same home, as long as one person clearly communicates an intent to end the marriage-like relationship. Separation is about the end of the relationship, not the physical move.

Proving the date is harder when you share a roof. Courts look at whether you stopped sharing a bedroom, stopped socializing as a couple, divided household responsibilities, and told others the relationship was over. Documenting the date, through a text, email, or letter, can prevent disputes about when the limitation clock started running. Under the Family Law Act, spouses are not treated as separated if they resume living together within a year primarily to reconcile and stay together for at least 90 days total.²

1
Canada Revenue Agency. Marital Status
2
British Columbia Laws. Family Law Act – Part 5 Property Division
3
British Columbia Laws. Family Law Act – Part 7 Child and Spousal Support
4
Department of Justice Canada. Federal Child Support Tables
5
British Columbia Laws. Wills, Estates and Succession Act
6
Government of Canada. Divorced or Separated: Splitting Canada Pension Plan Credits
7
Canada Revenue Agency. Update Your Personal Information With the CRA
8
Legal Aid BC. Living Together — Making Agreements
9
British Columbia Laws. Family Law Act – Part 12 Transition, Consequential Amendments and Commencement