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 do have the right to parent the child and the duty 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 do have the right to parent the child and the duty to pay child support. | ||
This | This page is for unmarried people who have had a child but who never lived together. 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== | |||
The provincial Family | The provincial ''Family Law Act'' applies to couples that are or were in long-term cohabiting relationships and to couples who weren't in long relationships but have had children together. Almost all of the orders the act talks about aren't available to couples who aren't married and don't qualify as unmarried spouses. As a result, people in short relationships will not be entitled to claim spousal support and are excluded from the parts of the act that deal with family property and family debt. | ||
The federal Divorce Act only applies to people who are or were married to each other; it doesn't apply to unmarried couples, including couples who qualify as | The federal ''Divorce Act'' only applies to people who are or were married to each other; it doesn't apply to unmarried couples, including couples who qualify as unmarried spouses. | ||
===Orders Available to Unmarried Couples=== | |||
Couples who neither married nor lived together | |||
Couples who neither married nor lived together will have certain rights and obligations toward one another if they have children. In certain circumstances they may be able to make claims about the property they both own or about property only one person owns, whether they lived together or not. They will also be entitled to certain government benefits as a result of being parents. | |||
====Children==== | |||
There is no minimum length-of-relationship requirement for any claim involving children. A parent is a parent regardless of the nature of the relationship which produced the child. | There is no minimum length-of-relationship requirement for any claim involving children. A parent is a parent regardless of the nature of the relationship which produced the child. | ||
A parent may apply for all of the relief available under the Family | A parent may apply for all of the relief available under the ''Family Law Act'' that concerns children, from child support to guardianship to the various restraining orders that are available to protect a child from harm. Issues about children are discussed at greater length further on in this chapter. | ||
====Property==== | |||
In a short relationship, each party will generally be entitled keep whatever he or she brought into the relationship. In the case of jointly owned assets, assets which both parties own and are registered in the names of both parties, like a house or a car, there is a legal presumption that each party has an equal interest in such assets, whether the parties contributed equally to their purchase or not. | |||
It is possible, in certain circumstances, for someone who doesn't own an asset to nevertheless claim an interest in that asset under the law of trusts and the law of equity. There is no minimum length-of-relationship requirement for claims of this nature. | |||
====Government Benefits==== | |||
The most important thing to know on this topic is that most federal legislation defines a ''spouse'' as someone who has been in a cohabiting relationship for at least one year, as opposed to British Columbia's legislation which generally requires a two-year cohabiting relationship to qualify. As a result, someone in a relationship of at least one year may qualify for any federal benefits that depend on a spousal relationship although they probably won't qualify for provincial benefits. People in a relationship of less than one year will not usually qualify for any benefits at all. | |||
The most important thing to know on this topic is that most federal legislation defines a | |||
Benefits relating to children, like the BC Family Bonus, the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement and the 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 website of the Canada Revenue Agency has a lot of information about federal and provincial benefits. | Benefits relating to children, like the BC Family Bonus, the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement and the 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 website of the Canada Revenue Agency has a lot of information about federal and provincial benefits. | ||
===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 about spousal support or for orders under the ''Family Law Act'' about the division of property and debt. | |||
====Spousal Support==== | |||
The ''Family Law Act'' defines a "spouse" for the purposes of claims for support as someone who has lived in a marriage-like relationship with someone else for at least two years or for less than two years if the couple has had a child together. As only spouses are eligible for spousal support, people who do not meet these criteria cannot apply for spousal support. | |||
====Property==== | |||
The ''Family Law Act'' defines a "spouse" for the purposes of claims about property and debt as someone who has lived in a marriage-like relationship with someone else for at least two years. Only spouses may ask for orders about the division of property and debt. | |||
The Family | |||
STOPPED | |||
The only kind of property claim an unmarried party can advance is through trust law when the asset at issue is not jointly owned. | |||
==Child Support== | |||
Child support is payable by anyone who is the biological parent of a child, regardless of the brevity of the relationship which produced the child. The Family Relations Act says, at s. 88, that: | Child support is payable by anyone who is the biological parent of a child, regardless of the brevity of the relationship which produced the child. The Family Relations Act says, at s. 88, that: |