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Difference between revisions of "Parents"
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Your relationship may have been brief, but if you and your boyfriend or girlfriend have had a child together you are both responsible for meeting the child's financial needs and you both have the right to be involved in raising the child. You may not have any other rights and obligations towards each other, but you may have the right to participate in raising your child and you do have the obligation to pay child support. | Your relationship may have been brief, but if you and your boyfriend or girlfriend have had a child together you are both responsible for meeting the child's financial needs and you both have the right to be involved in raising the child. You may not have any other rights and obligations towards each other, but you may have the right to participate in raising your child and you do have the obligation to pay child support. | ||
This | This section is for unmarried people who have had a child but who never lived together, and, as result, are not spouses. It talks about the legal issues unmarried parents may have to deal with and those they don't, and discusses the two most common issues couples like this have to deal with, child support and the care of children. | ||
==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
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====Separately and jointly owned property==== | ====Separately and jointly owned property==== | ||
In a short relationship, each | In a short relationship, each person will generally be entitled keep whatever he or she brought into the relationship and anything received as a gift from the other person. | ||
In the case of jointly owned assets | In the case of jointly owned assets ― property that both people own and are registered in both names ― like a house or a car, there is a legal presumption that each person has an equal interest in such assets, whether the couple contributed equally to their purchase or not. | ||
===Orders not available to unmarried couples=== | ===Orders not available to unmarried couples=== | ||
A couple who have a child but did not live together, or who lived together for less than two years and did not have a child, cannot ask for orders under the ''Family Law Act'' about child support for the benefit of stepchildren, spousal support or about the division of family property and family debt. Only people who qualify as spouses | A couple who have a child but did not live together, or who lived together for less than two years and did not have a child, cannot ask for orders under the ''Family Law Act'' about child support for the benefit of stepchildren, or for spousal support orders, or for orders about the division of family property and family debt. Only people who qualify as spouses may ask for orders about these subjects. | ||
====Spousal support==== | ====Spousal support==== | ||
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====Child support for stepchildren==== | ====Child support for stepchildren==== | ||
Stepparents can be required to pay child support for the benefit of their stepchildren. However, s. 146 of the ''Family Law Act'' defines a ''stepparent'' as someone who is "a spouse of the child's parent" | Stepparents can be required to pay child support for the benefit of their stepchildren. However, s. 146 of the ''Family Law Act'' defines a ''stepparent'' as someone who is "a spouse of the child's parent." As a result, someone in an unmarried relationship that doesn't qualify as a spousal relationship cannot be made to pay child support for the other party's children. | ||
====Family property and family debt==== | ====Family property and family debt==== | ||
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===Agreements available to unmarried couples=== | ===Agreements available to unmarried couples=== | ||
A family law agreement is a contract between two or more people that is enforceable by the courts, just like any other kind of contract. People can make any kind of contract they want, as long as the contract isn't made for an illegal purpose and doesn't require a person to do something illegal. There's no reason, for example, why two people couldn't make a contract requiring one of them to wear purple shirts on Thursdays in exchange for a box of ants. Although it's hard to imagine why anyone would want such a contract, it's still possible and it would be enforceable in court | A family law agreement is a contract between two or more people that is enforceable by the courts, just like any other kind of contract. People can make any kind of contract they want, as long as the contract isn't made for an illegal purpose and doesn't require a person to do something illegal. There's no reason, for example, why two people couldn't make a contract requiring one of them to wear purple shirts on Thursdays in exchange for a box of ants. Although it's hard to imagine why anyone would want such a contract, it's still possible and it would be enforceable in court provided that the agreement was properly written out and signed. | ||
This | This section has just gone through the sorts of orders unmarried couples can ask for under the ''Family Law Act''. Essentially, we're talking about orders about the care of children and the payment of child support. If an unmarried couple was going to have an agreement, it would probably talk about these two issues. However, like the contract about shirts and ants, there's no reason why an unmarried couple couldn't make an agreement that also talked about the payment of spousal support and the division of family property and family debt. Although they're under no legal obligation to make a contract about these things, they can if they want. | ||
===Government benefits=== | ===Government benefits=== | ||
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Benefits relating to children, like the [http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=406FD5D227AA4BAEB741A49AFBEDD485 BC Family Bonus], the [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cctb/ Canada Child Tax Benefit], the [http://www.nationalchildbenefit.ca/eng/home.shtml National Child Benefit Supplement] and the [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/uccb/ Universal Child Care Benefit], are available to anyone who is a parent, regardless of the nature of that person's relationship with the other parent. The [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html website of the Canada Revenue Agency] has a lot of information about federal and provincial benefits. | Benefits relating to children, like the [http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=406FD5D227AA4BAEB741A49AFBEDD485 BC Family Bonus], the [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cctb/ Canada Child Tax Benefit], the [http://www.nationalchildbenefit.ca/eng/home.shtml National Child Benefit Supplement] and the [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/uccb/ Universal Child Care Benefit], are available to anyone who is a parent, regardless of the nature of that person's relationship with the other parent. The [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html website of the Canada Revenue Agency] has a lot of information about federal and provincial benefits. | ||
The federal government offers an online [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/bnfts/clcltr/cctb_clcltr-eng.html Canada child benefits calculator] | The federal government offers an online [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/bnfts/clcltr/cctb_clcltr-eng.html Canada child benefits calculator] that estimates the amount of benefits available from federal and provincial sources based on information you provide. | ||
==Rights and responsibilities of unmarried parents== | ==Rights and responsibilities of unmarried parents== | ||
Couples who neither married nor lived together but have had a child together can ask for orders about the care of their child and child support for their child under the provincial ''Family Law Act''. | Couples who are neither married nor lived together but have had a child together can ask for orders about the care of their child and child support for their child under the provincial ''Family Law Act''. | ||
===Child support=== | ===Child support=== | ||
Child support is payable by anyone who is the parent of a child, regardless of the brevity of the relationship | Child support is payable by anyone who is the parent of a child, regardless of the 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 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: | 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: | ||
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#the rules about the payment of children's special expenses. | #the rules about the payment of children's special expenses. | ||
Nothing in the ''Family Law Act'' or the [[Child Support Guidelines]] allows a parent to escape paying support through some quirk in the circumstances under which the child was conceived or whether the pregnancy was planned or not. The only question | Nothing in the ''Family Law Act'' or the [[Child Support Guidelines]] allows a parent to escape paying support through some quirk in the circumstances under which the child was conceived or whether the pregnancy was planned or not. The only question that may be left open is whether or not the person being asked to pay child support is the parent of the child for whose benefit support is sought. If that's an issue, a paternity test can always be taken. | ||
You can find additional information about child support and the Guidelines in the chapter [[Child Support]]. Additional information about paternity and paternity testing can be found in the section [[Parentage and Assisted Reproduction]]. | |||
===The care of children=== | ===The care of children=== | ||
