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What is a de facto relationship?
The term "de facto relationship" is defined in Section 4AA of the Family Law Act. (1) A person is in a de facto relationship with another person if; (a) the persons are not legally married to each other; and (b) the persons are not related by family; (c) having regard to all the circumstances of their relationship, they have a relationship as a couple living together on a genuine domestic basis. (5) for the purposes of this Act; (a) a de facto relationship can exist between 2 persons of different sexes and between 2 persons of the same sex; and (b) a de facto relationship can exist even if one of the persons is legally married to someone else or in another de facto relationship. For a full definition click the link to Section 4AA of the Family Law Act. One should note that before the recent amendments to the Act, the regulation of de facto relationships (also known as domestic partnerships) came under state legislation. So each of the individual states and territories drafted their own set of laws to govern relationships outside of marriage. For decades defacto and same sex interest groups have lobbied parliament to have their relationships recognised under the provisions of the Family Law Act. Now de facto and same sex couples in most states have the same access to the law as married couples have had since 1975. All the states and territories except Western Australia have referred their powers under state legislation to the Commonwealth. As WA has its own Family Court Act (which mirrors much of the legislation in the FLA) they have decided to regulate defacto relationships themselves. Specifically, provisions that relate to Financial matters concerning defacto relationships can be found under PART VIIIAB of the Act. Here you will find sections 90UB. Financial agreements before de facto relationship – click to learn more 90UC. Financial agreements during de facto relationship – click to learn more 90UD. Financial agreements after breakdown of a de facto relationship – click to learn more |
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defacto and cohabitation extra information
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact". In terms of a relationship it means that a couple are living together but are not married. It will often appear as 'defacto' or 'de facto' and there is no difference between the two. The other most common term used to describe when two people are living together is 'cohabitation' or 'to cohabit'.