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====Property====
In a short relationship, each person will generally be entitled to keep whatever he or she they brought into the relationship and anything he or she they received as a gift from the other person. If there are any jointly owned assets ― property that both people own and that is registered in both names ― like a house or a car, there is a legal presumption that each owner is entitled to an equal interest in the asset, whether the couple contributed equally to its purchase or not.
Although unmarried couples who lived together for less than two years, or didn't live together at all, aren't able to make any claims about property owned only by one of them under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', they may be able to make a claim under certain common law principles. These are discussed in more detail in the first section of the [[Property_%26_Debt_in_Family_Law_Matters|Property & Debt]] chapter, under the heading "[[Property_%26_Debt_in_Family_Law_Matters#Property_claims_and_people_who_aren.27t_spouses|Property claims and people who aren't spouses]]".
===Child support===
Child support is payable by anyone who is the parent of a child, regardless of the nature or brevity of the relationship that produced the child. The ''Family Law Act'' says, at s. 147, that "each parent" has a duty to provide support for his or her their child.
Under s. 150(1) of the act, child support is to be paid in the amount determined under the [[Child Support Guidelines]]. As a result, all of the provisions of the Guidelines apply to unmarried parents, including:
#a parent who "regularly cares" for the child.
In other words, if a couple has had a child but never lived together, the parent who does not live with the child is not presumed to be a guardian of the child unless he or she "they ''regularly cares" care'' for the child.
A parent who isn't a guardian can become a guardian if the child's other guardians, who may be just the other parent, agree that the parent should be a guardian. If the parents can't agree on this, then the parent who isn't a guardian has three choices. He or sheThey:
#must settle for having contact with the child and not being able to participate in parenting the child,
#must prove that he or she "they ''regularly cares" care'' for the child, in <span class="noglossary">order</span> to be recognized as a guardian of the child who is entitled to participate in parenting the child, or
#must apply to be appointed as the guardian of a child under s. 51 of the ''Family Law Act''.