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Ending a civil partnership

What is a civil partnership

A civil partnership is a legally-registered relationship between two people of the same sex.

How does a civil partnership come to an end

A civil partnership will come to an end if you or your civil partner dies. If you want to end your civil partnership before one of you dies, you need to get permission from a court. There are different ways you can ask a court to end your civil partnership. You can ask the court to grant:

a dissolution order. Your civil partnership must have lasted for at least one year before you can apply for a dissolution order
a separation order. You don't have to wait until your civil partnership has lasted for a year before you can apply for a separation order. You can apply for a separation order at any time
an annulment.

If you're not a British Citizen, ending a civil partnership may affect your right to stay in the UK.

If you have children, you will have to sort out arrangements for the children when you end a civil partnership.

You might need to sort out financial arrangements if your civil partnership ends.

You might need to sort out housing problems if your civil partnership ends.

Who to inform when your civil partnership ends

If you and your partner are separating, you may need to inform:

your landlord or housing office
your housing benefit office
your council tax office
your mortgage lender
water, gas, electricity and telephone companies
your benefits office
your tax office, particularly if you're getting tax credits
current school and future school if you have children and they are moving
your bank or any other financial institution if you have a joint account. It may be advisable for you to freeze the account to prevent your partner withdrawing some or all of the money
hire purchase or credit companies
insurance companies, particularly if you have joint policies
the post office, if you want mail redirected
your doctor, dentist and child health clinic.

Dissolution orders

If you want to dissolve your civil partnership, you will need to apply to a court for a dissolution order. Your civil partnership must have lasted at least one year before you can apply for a dissolution. You must prove to the court that the civil partnership has 'irretrievably' broken down - that is broken down on a permanent basis. You must be able to prove at least one of the following things:

your partner has behaved unreasonably
you and your partner have lived apart for two years, and that you both agreed to the dissolution
you and your partner have lived apart for at least five years, if only one of you agrees to the dissolution
your partner deserted you at least two years ago.

How to apply for a dissolution order

To apply for a dissolution order, you will need to fill in some forms. You can get these by going to the Ministry of Justice website at www.justice.gov.uk. You can also get the forms from the nearest court that deals with civil partnership dissolutions. To find your nearest court, look up 'courts' in your telephone directory or go to the Ministry of Justice website at www.justice.gov.uk.

If your partner agrees to the dissolution of your civil partnership, the court will look at the papers and make a conditional order of dissolution. The dissolution will be made final six weeks from the date of the conditional order.

If your partner doesn't agree to the dissolution, you should consult a solicitor. Legal fees can be very high so it is best to try to come to an agreement before going to court. You might be able to get legal aid.

For more information about legal aid, see Help with legal costs.

Civil partnerships and separation orders

If you want to separate from your civil partner but don't want to dissolve the civil partnership (or it's been less than a year since you registered your civil partnership), you can apply to court for a separation order.

You don't have to wait for a year after registering your civil partnership before you can apply for a separation order and you don't have to have been living apart from your partner first. However, neither of you will be free to register another civil partnership (or to marry) unless you get a dissolution order.

If you have children, the court will not make a separation order unless it is satisfied about the arrangements for the children.

You can get a separation order from a county court. The court will grant you a separation order if you can prove at least one of the following things:

your partner has behaved unreasonably
you and your partner have lived apart for two years, and that you both agreed to the separation order
you and your partner have lived apart for at least five years, if only one of you agrees to the separation order
your partner deserted you at least two years ago.

If you get a separation order and you want to apply for a dissolution order later on, there's nothing to stop you doing this. You'll be able to use the same evidence that you used to get the separation order and you won't have to prove the same things all over again.

Unreasonable behaviour

You may want to end your civil partnership because of your partner's unreasonable behaviour. Unreasonable behaviour is behaviour that means you can't be expected to live with your civil partner any longer. Unreasonable behaviour could include:

physical and mental cruelty to you or your children
verbal abuse
financial irresponsibility
drunkenness
being sexually unfaithful
passing on certain sexually-transmitted diseases.

There may have been a number of incidents of unreasonable behaviour during the civil partnership. Each incident in itself does not have to be serious. A long period of less serious incidents may be enough to end a civil partnership. One very serious incident may also be enough, for example, if your partner has sexually abused a child.

When you apply to court for a dissolution order, you should be able to give a detailed account of the behaviour which you think has led to the breakdown of your civil partnership. If possible, include dates and places of incidents.

If you stayed with your partner for six months or more after the date of the last incident of unreasonable behaviour, the court might think that you didn't find the behaviour that unreasonable.

Living apart

You can apply for a dissolution or separation order if you and your civil partner have lived apart for at least two years and you both agree to the court making the order. If you've lived apart for at least five years, there is no need for you both to agree.

Living apart usually means that you haven't been living in the same household. In some circumstances, you may have stayed in the same home but you must be able to show that you have not shared meals, slept together or done things for each other like washing, cooking or cleaning.

If you've applied for a dissolution order because of living apart for five years, the court may refuse to grant the order if it would cause serious financial hardship or other hardship to your partner.

Desertion

You might want to end your civil partnership because your partner has deserted you. This means they have left the home against your wishes with no good reason. They must have been away for at least two years just before you apply to end the civil partnership.

When you apply to end the civil partnership, you must say that your partner has left and the date that they went away. You must also give the circumstances of how your partner left and that they have stayed away without your agreement.

In some cases, if your partner has deserted you, this could count as unreasonable behaviour. If your partner's desertion counts as unreasonable behaviour, you won't have to wait two years before you apply to end the civil partnership.

Annulment

For a civil partnership to be legal, it must meet certain conditions. For example, you and your partner must both be over 16 when you register and you must not already be a civil partner or married to someone else. If your civil partnership does not meet one of these conditions, the court can end the partnership by granting an annulment.

For more information about conditions you must meet to register a civil partnership, see Registering a civil partnership.

When the court grants an annulment, it may say that your civil partnership is:

void. This means that, in effect, the civil partnership never existed; or
voidable. This means the civil partnership was legal at the time it was registered but it isn't legal any longer.

Whether the court will say your civil partnership is void or voidable depends on the circumstances.

If you have children, the court will not grant an annulment unless it is satisfied about the arrangements for the children.

If you want to apply for an annulment, you must usually do it within three years of the date you registered your civil partnership. There are some exceptions to this rule.

You will need to get legal advice if you want to apply for an annulment. You might get financial help to pay for your legal costs.

For more information about financial help with legal costs, see Help with legal costs.

If you're not a British Citizen

If you're not a British Citizen and your civil partnership ends, this could affect your right to stay in the UK.

If you're not a British Citizen and you are thinking of ending your civil partnership, you should get advice from an experienced immigration adviser. Your local Citizens Advice Bureau should be able to help. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.

Children at the end of a civil partnership

When a civil partnership ends, everyone with parental responsibility will need to decide who will care for the children on a day-to-day basis.

Having parental responsibility means you share with your partner in the responsibility for your child's health, education and welfare.

If you're in a civil partnership, there are various ways in which you might have got parental responsibility for your partner's children.

For more information about parental responsibility, see Responsibility for children in Civil partnerships and living together – legal differences.

It is best if everyone with parental responsibility can come to a friendly arrangement about the care of your children.

If you find it difficult to come to an agreement, you can ask for help from a local family mediation service. Mediators are people who are trained to listen to all sides in a dispute, and to help you reach an agreement on what will be best for the children. Any decisions you make there will not be legally binding.

If you can't come to an agreement about the care of your children, you can ask the court to make a decision (court order) for you. However, in most cases, the court will expect you to arrange a meeting with a family mediator first, before they will consider your application.

If you are dissolving a civil partnership or getting a legal separation, the court will not end the relationship until it has looked at the arrangements for the children. You'll have to give the names of all dependent children of the family. A dependant child is one who is under 16 or under 19 if in full-time education. It includes children who are the children of both partners together, adopted children, step-children and any children who have been treated as part of the family. It doesn't include foster children.

You must give details of how the children will be cared for. You'll need to say where the children will live and who with as well as the financial arrangements for their support.

The court's main concern will be to decide what's in the best interests of the children. If the arrangements are acceptable to everyone with parental responsibility, the court will not make decisions concerning the child. It will only make decisions where this is necessary to sort out a disagreement about arrangements. Decisions made by the court are called orders.

If you have got children and there's likely to be a dispute about the arrangements for their care, you'll need to consult an experienced solicitor. You might get help with legal costs.

For more information about help with legal costs, see Help with legal costs.

For more information about finding a solicitor, see Using a solicitor. You can also get help with finding a solicitor from a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.

For more information about parental responsibility, including how you can get parental responsibility for your partner's children, visit the Advicenow website at: www.advicenow.org.uk/livingtogether.

What orders can a court make about children

A court will only make decisions about children if it feels it is in the best interests of the child to do so. A court can make decisions about:

who the child should live with ( this is called a residence order)
who the child should have contact with and what sort of contact it should be ( this is called a contact order).

Residence orders

The court can make a residence order in favour of:

one parent or partner in a civil partnership. This means that the child must live with that person
both partners in a civil partnership. One residence order can be made for both partners, even if they are not living together. The order will say how much time the child will live with each partner
each parent or partner in a civil partnership. Each parent or partner will have a separate order saying how much time the child will live with them.

Contact order

The court will normally expect you and your partner to make your own arrangements about maintaining contact with your children. The court will only make a court order if you can't agree.

The contact order may include conditions. It may also say what sort of contact you can have, for example, visiting, telephoning or writing letters. Orders can also be made to allow contact between the child and other relatives or friends.

For useful fact sheets about contact with children, visit the Coram Children's Legal Centre website at www.childrenslegalcentre.com and the Rights of Women website at www.rightsofwomen.org.uk.

Financial arrangements at the end of a civil partnership

At the end of a civil partnership, both parents are responsible for supporting their children financially, regardless of where the children will live. This means biological parents and people who have parental responsibility.

You and your partner have a legal responsibility to support one another financially at the end of a civil partnership. This is the case whether or not you have children.

There are three possible ways to arrange financial support:

by agreement
through the Child Support Agency or Child Maintenance Service
through the courts.

You can get help to agree financial arrangements.

Agreeing financial support

If you both agree to financial support, this is called a voluntary agreement or family-based arrangement. It can be written down or it could be a verbal agreement.

You can agree, for example, that one of you will make weekly payments to the other for the support of children, or that one of you will meet rent or mortgage payments, household bills, or pay for the children's clothing and holidays.

If you need advice on the options available for arranging child maintenance and for advice on how to set up a voluntary child maintenance agreement, you can contact the Child Maintenance Options Service. Their helpline number is: 0800 988 0988. You can also go to the Service's website at: www.cmoptions.org.

The Child Maintenance Options Service can help you:

understand the options for making a child maintenance arrangement
check that any existing arrangement is right for you and your child
estimate how much child maintenance you would pay or get
refer you to other organisations for help and advice.

For more information about making a family-based arrangement, see How to make a family-based child maintenance arrangement.

Before you agree to a package of financial support, it may be useful to get legal advice about whether it is an appropriate arrangement. It may also be useful to have an agreement written up by a solicitor in case of future problems You might get help with the costs of making a voluntary agreement.

For more information about help with legal costs, see Help with legal costs.

Child Support Agency (CSA)

You could use a statutory scheme to arrange child maintenance. The Child Support Agency (CSA) runs the 1993 and 2003 Scheme. If your civil partnership has ended and the children are living with you, you can apply to the CSA. They will work out the amount of money you will get, using the rules of the 2003 Scheme.

For more information about getting financial support for your children through the CSA, see Child maintenance – where to start.

The Child Maintenance Service

Some new applications for maintenance are dealt with by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) under the 2012 Scheme. This applies if:

there are at least four children for whom maintenance should be paid, and
at least four of the children have the same two parents – the parent with day-to-day care and the parent who should pay maintenance, and
there has been no previous involvement with the CSA.

The CMS uses a standard process to work out how much child maintenance should be paid but the calculation rules are different to those used under the 1993 and 2003 Schemes. They can also collect child maintenance payments and enforce any missed payments.

Even if you are eligible maintenance to be dealt with under the 2012 Scheme, you must still apply to the CSA and they will pass on suitable applications to the CMS.

If you’re not eligible for maintenance under the 2012 Scheme, the CSA will still process your application under the rules of the 2003 Scheme.

For more information about getting financial support for your children through the CMS, see Child maintenance – where to start.

Court orders

You can apply for a court order for financial support at the end of a civil partnership. In most cases, the court will expect you to arrange a meeting with a family mediator first, before it will consider your application.

The court will consider all the financial circumstances of both partners, including pension arrangements. In some circumstances, the court can also make an order for financial support for the children.

A court can make an order for regular payments to be made or a one-off lump sum. It can also make an order about pension arrangements. You might get help with legal costs when you make an application to court for financial support. However, you might have to pay some of these costs back out of the money or property you are given by the court order. This is called the statutory charge. Make sure your solicitor explains the statutory charge properly to you before you start court action. Where pension arrangements are involved, you should consider getting specialist financial advice.

For more information about help with legal costs, see Help with legal costs.

Housing rights at the end of a civil partnership

At the end of a civil partnership, a court can give you or your partner short-term rights to the home, for example:

the right to stay in your home
the right for you to come back home to get your things
the right to stop your partner from coming into the home.

A court can also make long-term arrangements about housing. If there's a disagreement about housing, the court will deal with the disagreement as part of the dissolution of a civil partnership. In most cases, the court will expect you to arrange a meeting with a family mediator first, before it will consider your application for a court order about housing.

If you are thinking of going to court about your housing rights after the breakdown of your civil partnership, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, a family law solicitor or at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.

Rights to the home for owner-occupiers

If you and your partner are owner-occupiers, it's possible that only one of you is the actual owner of the property. If this is the case, the partner who is not the owner will need to protect their right to stay in the property and make sure the owner doesn't sell it without their knowledge. Even if you actually move out when the relationship ends, you may want to move back in again later.

To protect your rights to stay in the property, you have to fill in a form and send it to either the District Land Registry or the Land Charges Department in Plymouth. This depends on where the property is registered.

This procedure is not complicated and it is not necessary to consult a solicitor. However, anyone who wants to protect their rights in this way should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.

Paying the mortgage when a civil partnership breaks down

If a mortgage is in joint names, both people are jointly and solely liable for the mortgage payments. This is known as joint and several liability.

This means that if one of you leaves and stops contributing to the mortgage payments, the lender can ask the other person to pay the full amount.

If a mortgage is in one person's name, only that person is liable for the mortgage payments.

However, if your name is not on the mortgage and you want to stay in your home, you will need to keep up the mortgage payments. If your ex-partner is no longer making any payments, you will need to pay the full amount, otherwise the mortgage lender can start action to evict you from your home. If you're in a civil partnership, you have the right to make payments towards the mortgage even though you're not liable for them. The lender must accept the payments.

Paying the rent when a civil partnership breaks down

Joint tenancy

A joint tenancy means that all of the tenants named on the tenancy agreement are jointly and solely liable for the rent. This is known as joint and several liability.

This means that if the other joint tenant leaves and stops making payments towards the rent, the landlord can ask you to pay the full amount. That's why it's important to keep paying the full amount, otherwise you may get evicted.

In some cases, a joint tenant can end the joint tenancy by giving notice to the landlord. If you want to stay in the property you'll need to make sure this doesn't happen. Your landlord may be able to give you a new tenancy in your name only. If you are in this situation you should get advice.

You can get advice from your local CAB. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.

Sole tenancy which is not in your name

If a tenancy is in the name of your civil partner, they will be liable to pay the rent for as long as the tenancy continues. If the rent isn't paid and arrears build up, the landlord may take action to evict you.

If your ex-partner is no longer paying any rent, you have the right to pay the rent and the landlord can't legally refuse to accept it. If the landlord won't accept the rent you should get advice straightaway.

You can get advice from your local CAB. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.

Benefits and housing costs

If you stay in your home after your partner has left, depending on your income, you may be able to get Housing Benefit to help pay the rent. If there is a mortgage, you might get help with the mortgage interest.

For more information about Housing Benefit see Help with your rent – Housing Benefit.

For more information about help with mortgage interest see Help with mortgage costs if you're out of work.

Family mediation

Family mediation is a way of helping couples who are separating or ending their civil partnership to sort out disagreements and reach decisions about things like money, property and looking after the children. Any decisions you make there will not be legally binding.

Two main types of family mediation are available:-

out-of-court mediation, where people can refer themselves or be referred by, for example, a solicitor or adviser - see below
court-based dispute resolution, where people are referred by the court when children are involved.

Out-of-court family mediation

A couple can use family mediation services as soon as possible after they have decided their relationship is ending and they feel able to discuss any disagreements. Mediation can be helpful before legal proceedings begin, to encourage co-operation between the couple and to prevent disputes from getting worse and agreement becoming harder to reach in the future. Family mediation can also be used after a separation or dissolution of a civil partnership if new issues arise or there are outstanding issues to be resolved.

In most cases, if you wish to apply to the court for an order to settle a disagreement about the children, money or property, you will have to contact a mediator and arrange a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting to see if you can resolve the dispute without going to court. The meeting can take place jointly or separately. There will be some situations when you will not need to attend a meeting, for example, where the police are investigating domestic violence.

You may get financial help with the costs.

For more information on financial help with the legal costs of family mediation, see Help with legal costs.

You can find a useful guide about how family mediation can help you on the AdviceNow website at www.advicenow.org.uk.

In England and Wales, you can find a family mediator by looking on the Ministry of Justice website at www.familymediationhelpline.co.uk, or the National Family Mediation website at: www.nfm.org.uk/home. National Family Mediation is an organisation of not-for-profit family mediation services, but does not represent all family mediators.

You can also get information about family mediation from the Advice Services Alliance website at www.asauk.org.uk.

Court-based dispute resolution

If you ask a court to make decisions about arrangements for your children at the end of your civil partnership, they will usually ask a Children and Family Reporter to get involved.

Children and Family Reporters work for the Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass). They are independent of the courts and other agencies such as social services, education and health authorities. They are qualified in social work and experienced in working with children and families.

The Children and Family Reporter will try and help you and your partner work out the best possible arrangements for your children.

Sometimes the court will ask you and your partner, and any other parents involved, to meet with the Children and Family Reporter to see if you can sort things out without having to go on with the court case. If you can come to an agreement at this stage, the judge can make an order to confirm what was agreed.

If you can't come to an agreement, the judge can order that a report is produced before the case goes any further.

Court-based dispute resolution schemes are free.

For more information about court-based dispute resolution and Children and Family Reporters, in England visit the Cafcass website at: www.cafcass.gov.uk, and in Wales, see www.cafcass.gov.uk/cafcassCymru.htm.

Further help

The Money Advice Service, Divorce and Separation website

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk

The Advicenow website

Divorce – a survival toolkit at: www.advicenow.org.uk
Parents Apart at: www.advicenow.org.uk

National Family Mediation website

Information about separation, divorce and family mediation is available from the National Family Mediation website at: www.nfm.org.uk.

Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass)

www.cafcass.gov.uk (in England)
www.cafcass.gov.uk/cafcassCymru.htm (in Wales)

Adviceguide

Citizens Advice