Legal Question in Family Law in Canada
if we seperate
My boyfriend and I have been together for 2 1/2 years the house we live in is in his name. I make a lot more money then him and we want to do some renovation. I said that I would take out a loan or exten the morgage but the bank says I need to be on the loan because he's maxed out but I'm not. His mother came over the other day and said that if we break up because we have not filed out income taxes together that I dont get anything because their is no proof that we are commen law...is that true? I thought that if we were togerther for more then 6 months that we were. Do I need proof if ever we break up? I pay the utilities but he pays the morgage? Thanks for your time
Lea
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: if we seperate
His mother is wrong. Proof of common law is dependant on a number of factors; joint filing of income tax can be one, but it is a not very important one. In British Columbia, in order to qualify for spousal support if a couple is not married, they must have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least 2 years; for asset division there is no particular qualifying period, but generally the longer the couple have lived together and the more intertwined their affairs are, together with a number of other factors such as contributions the claiming one has made to the asset in the name of the other, whether or not there is a juristic reason for the contribution, and whether by making the contributions the contributing one has done so to his or her detriment, then the greater the liklihood that a Court will find that they are common law and each entitled to a share in all of the assets, regardless of whose name they are registered in.
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