Difference between revisions of "Unmarried Spouses"

The only thing that needs to be pointed out is that the two-year period doesn't need to be continuous. On the other hand, if a claim is based on the parties being unmarried spouses, the court will probably look at the nature of the relationship in more detail. A gap of three months in the middle of the two years a couple are supposed to have lived together might prevent someone from claiming that a couple are spouses; on the other hand, if the three months' absence was because someone was working out of town, the three months may not matter very much.

This is more complex than the calculation of the duration of a relationship, partly because it calls for the court to make a decision about the nature of the parties' private, personal relationship with one another. In a 1998 case called ''[http://canlii.ca/t/1dz3n Takacs v. Gallo]'', 1998 CanLII 6428 (BCCA) the Court of Appeal endorsed these considerations: