Common law spouses have certain rights/obligations conferred on them by various statutes and the common law. Each statute may give a slightly different definition of a common law “spouse”. A general rule is that for most federal legislation it takes one year of living together in a “marriage-like relationship” to qualify as common law and for most provincial legislation it takes two years to qualify (See [http://canlii.ca/t/1dz3n ''Takacs v. Gallo'' (1998), 157 D.L.R. (4th) 623 ] for a summary of the indicators to be considered when determining whether parties have lived in a “marriage-like relationship”; see [http://canlii.ca/t/g87vw ''Matteucci v Greenberg'', 2014 BCSC 1434]; [http://canlii.ca/t/fx5b2 ''Trudeau v Panter'', 2013 BCSC 706 ] that merely living together does not mean a relationship is marriage-like).

Under the ''FLA'', a person will be considered a ‘spouse’ if they have lived in a marriage-like relationship and have a child together (for spousal support only), or if they have lived in a marriage-like relationship for a continuous period of 2 years (see [http://canlii.ca/t/g7cp6 ''CAM. v MDQ'', 2014 BCPC 110 ] regarding the child exception to living together for two years). This period begins when the couple began to live together in a marriage-like relationship. Someone separating within two years of ''FLA'' coming into force is a spouse ([http://canlii.ca/t/g2gfj ''Meservy v Field'', 2013 BCSC 2378]).