Cohabitation rights in Ireland: what unmarried couples can claim

Ireland has no common law marriage. A couple who live together for twenty years without marrying have none of the rights spouses have on separation or death. What they may have, since 1 January 2011, is a right to ask a court for redress under Part 15 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. This guide explains who can use it, what the court can order, the time limits, and how it differs from marriage.

Cohabitant and qualified cohabitant

Section 172 of the 2010 Act defines a cohabitant as one of two adults, of the same or opposite sex, who live together as a couple in an intimate and committed relationship, and who are not married to each other, in a civil partnership with each other, or closely related. The court looks at the whole relationship: how long you lived together, whether you had a child, the financial and domestic arrangements, whether you presented yourselves as a couple.

A qualified cohabitant is a cohabitant who, when the relationship ended, had lived with the other person as a couple for:

• at least 2 years, where they are the parents of one or more dependent children; or
• at least 5 years in any other case.

Only a qualified cohabitant can apply for redress. There is an extra condition in section 172(6) for anyone who was married during the relationship: they are not a qualified cohabitant unless they lived apart from their spouse for at least 4 of the previous 5 years. This catches the common situation of a person who left a marriage, never divorced, and started a new relationship.

Part 15 applies only to relationships that ended after 1 January 2011.

What the court can order

Being a qualified cohabitant is the gateway, not the claim. Under section 173, the applicant must also satisfy the court that they are financially dependent on the other cohabitant, and that the dependence arises from the relationship or from its ending. The court then considers factors including how long the relationship lasted, each person's financial circumstances, needs and obligations, the contributions each made to the other's welfare and to the home, the effect of the relationship on each person's earning capacity, and the rights of any other person, including a spouse or former spouse.

If that test is met, the court can make:

• a compensatory maintenance order (section 175): periodic payments or a lump sum from one cohabitant to the other;
• a property adjustment order (section 174): transferring or settling property, including the home, between the cohabitants;
• a pension adjustment order (section 187): directing pension trustees to pay part of one cohabitant's benefit to the other, in the same way as the orders described in Pension adjustment orders in Ireland: how a court splits a pension on separation or divorce.

Applications go to the Circuit Court, or the High Court in larger cases. The District Court does not hear redress claims. There is no automatic entitlement to any of these orders; each is at the court's discretion.

The time limit

Section 195 requires proceedings to be brought within 2 years of the date the relationship ended, save in exceptional circumstances. Two years passes faster than most people expect, especially where a separated couple is still untangling a home or a business. If you think you may have a claim, the date the relationship ended is the date that matters, and it is worth fixing it in writing early.

How this differs from marriage

The difference is not one of degree. Spouses have rights by law; cohabitants have a right to ask.

The home

This is the point that catches most people. Where a married couple separates, the court has power over the family home regardless of whose name is on the deeds (/guides/family-home-divorce-ireland). Where cohabitants separate, the home belongs to whoever holds the legal title. A partner who is not on the title may be able to show a beneficial interest through direct contributions to the purchase price or mortgage, but that is a property law claim that has to be proved, and paying rent, bills or for improvements does not usually establish it. The 2010 Act's property adjustment order is the route for a qualified cohabitant who cannot show such an interest, and it depends on the dependence test above.

Children

Children are treated the same regardless of their parents' status. Child maintenance, guardianship, custody and access all run under separate legislation and do not depend on the 2010 Act. See Guardianship, custody and access in Ireland and Child maintenance calculator in Ireland: what the State tool does and does not do. An unmarried father's guardianship position is explained in the first of those guides.

Cohabitation agreements

Section 202 allows cohabitants to make an agreement about their joint financial affairs during and after the relationship, including an agreement that neither will apply for redress under Part 15. The agreement is valid only if:

• each of you received independent legal advice before entering it, or you received legal advice together and both waived in writing the right to independent advice;
• it is in writing and signed by both of you;
• it meets the general law of contract.

The court can set an agreement aside or vary it where enforcing it would cause serious injustice. A cohabitation agreement is to an unmarried couple roughly what a separation agreement is to a married one (/guides/separation-agreement-ireland): a way of settling things privately and predictably rather than leaving them to a judge.

Inheritance

A cohabitant has no automatic right to any part of their partner's estate. If your partner dies without a will, the estate passes to their spouse, children, parents or other relatives under the Succession Act 1965, not to you. If they leave a will, you receive only what the will gives you.

Section 194 provides a remedy. A qualified cohabitant can apply to the court for provision out of the estate where the deceased did not make proper provision for them. The limits are tight:

• the application must be made within 6 months of the grant of representation (probate or letters of administration);
• it is not available where the relationship ended 2 years or more before the death, unless maintenance was being paid or proceedings were pending;
• the court cannot award more than the applicant would have received had the couple been spouses or civil partners.

The surest protection is a will that provides for your partner, together with a review of pension nominations and life policies.

Where this leaves you

A redress claim is a court case, with the costs that implies, and it has a two-year clock. the cost and route planner lets you set out what a Circuit Court application is likely to cost with and without a solicitor. If you are near the two-year limit or there is a home at stake, the solicitor page explains how to be put in touch with a family law solicitor who handles cohabitant cases.