Civil Partnership Breakdown

• In December last year, many gay and lesbian couples were preparing to take advantage of the new Civil Partnership Act by registering their partnerships.  This new status, akin to marriage, provides gay couples with advantageous tax and pension treatment and greater security generally.
• Civil partners who now wish to separate permanently must wait at least one year from the date of registration before they can start the process of ending the partnership.  This means that the first gay divorces can start at the end of this year. This is called a dissolution.
• The process is very similar to divorce. As with marriage, the civil partnership must have broken down irretrievably.  There are four ways to demonstrate this: unreasonable behaviour, separation for two years with both parties’ agreement, five years’ separation without consent and desertion for two years or more. Adultery is not, however, a ground although an intimate relationship or sex with another person could form the basis of an application for dissolution based on unreasonable behaviour.
• The process is started by issuing a Petition for dissolution and is a two stage process.  The Court will first grant a Conditional Order.  There is then a mandatory wait of at least 6 weeks before applying for the Final Order. It is only when this is granted that the partnership is dissolved.
• As with divorce, the dissolution can be completed within about 4 months, possibly longer if finances have not been resolved.
• Some civil partners may not realise that the Courts will deal with the division of partnership finances on dissolution in much the same way as they deal with finances on divorce.  Civil partners acquire claims against the other to maintenance, capital, pension sharing arrangements and property division. In the event of a dispute, these can be resolved by the Court which has a wide discretion to achieve fairness based on the length of the relationship, assets and income, contributions (not just financial) and respective needs.

If you require advice about the breakdown of your relationship, please contact Deborah Leask