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*The date of separate marks the end of the period during which family property and family debt accumulates, under sections 84(1) and 86.
*An agreement about child support is only binding if the agreement is made after the date of separation, under section 148(1) of the ''Family Law Act''.
*The date of separation marks the beginning of the two-year period during which unmarried spouses must begin a claim for the division of property and debt or for spousal support, under section 198(2).*The date of separation marks the beginning of the one-year period during which married spouses must live "separate and apart" to ask for a divorce on the basis of separation, under section 8(2)(a) of the ''[[Divorce Act]]''.
Because so many legal issues hinge on the date of separation, it won't be a surprise that people sometimes wind up arguing about when separation occurred. As a result, there's a good bit of case law about what constitutes "separation" and how to figure out which is the date of separation. Making things a bit more complicated, while the <span class="noglossary">decision</span> to separate is often made be everyone involved in a relationship, it only takes one person to decide to end a relationship, and a <span class="noglossary">decision</span> to end a relationship doesn't require anyone else's consent or agreement.
*Unmarried spouses have two years past the ''date of separation'' to start a claim in court for the division of family property, the sharing of family debt, or the payment of spousal support.
Spouses do not need to move out in <span class="noglossary">order</span> to be separated, and we'll talk about that in a little more detail in a moment. What's needed is for at least one spouse to reach the conclusion that the relationship is over, say so, and then begin behaving as if the relationship really is over. That usually means stopping sleeping together, stopping doing chores for each other, stopping going out together and so on. Section 3(4) of the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' talks about this issue:
<blockquote><tt>For the purposes of this Act,</tt></blockquote>
It's important to know that the Canada Revenue Agency has its own definition of separation, and requires people to have lived separate and apart for 90 days before it considers them to be separated. Once that 90-day period is over, the date of separation is the date the couple first began to live separate and apart.
===Separation and children===