Ending a cohabitation

A cohabitation deed can be ended, by agreement or by one partner. This page explains how.

Two routes

• By agreement. If you both agree, you can dissolve the cohabitation by a public deed, with the authority of the court given by decree. Before it decides, the court explains the consequences of dissolution to you, tries to reconcile you, and can revoke, modify or add conditions. The decree has the same effect as a court judgment.
• At one partner’s request. Dissolution can also be requested by one cohabitant against the other, by application to the court. The partner who applies does not have to say that the other was at fault.

What the court can decide

A partner who asks for dissolution can ask, in the same application, for everything that could be asked for in a separation case, such as arrangements for the children, maintenance, the home and the cessation of the community of assets. The court has the same powers to make temporary orders while the case is going on, and many of the Civil Code’s separation provisions apply. The fault rules do not apply. See personal separation for how these work.

When it authorises dissolution, the court orders who the children will live with and can change this later in the children’s best interests.

Effects

• The duty of cohabitants to maintain each other ends on dissolution.
• The dissolution takes effect against other people only from the day the judgment or deed is enrolled in the Public Registry.
• The action ends if you reconcile or if one of you dies.
• If you marry each other, or enter a civil union, the deed ends from that day.

If you had no deed

If you lived together for at least two years without a deed, your rights are more limited. You can apply, within twelve months, for the right to stay in the common home for a time while you find somewhere else, and for compensation where the other person has enriched themselves at your expense. The court can also decide who lives in the common home while the case is pending. See cohabitation.

If you have children

The court’s decisions about your children, custody, access and maintenance are made on the same basis as for married parents. See children.