Ending a Civil Partnership

If you are looking to end a civil partnership, you will need to gain permission from a court, in much the same way as when ending a marriage. There are three different ways to achieve this. Firstly, you could ask the court to grant a civil partnership dissolution order. In this case, your civil partnership must have lasted for at least one year, and you must demonstrate to the court that your civil partnership has ‘irretrievably’ broken down by proving one of the following: • Your partner has behaved unreasonably • You have lived apart from each other for two years, and that you both agree to the dissolution • You and your partner have lived apart for at least five years, if only one of you agrees to the dissolution. If you prefer to separate from your civil partner, but not dissolve the civil partnership, you can apply to court for a separation order. This is also the case if your civil partnership is less than a year old. However, neither partner will be able to register another civil partnership (or get married) without a dissolution order. To gain a separation order from a county court, you need to be able to prove one of the three reasons listed above. If you later want to apply for the civil partnership to be dissolved, you will be able to use the same evidence and won’t have to prove it all over again. The final way of ending a civil partnership is by applying for an annulment. This must usually be applied for within three years of entering the civil partnership, The court will grant an annulment if it finds your civil partnership is void – i.e. it was never legal since it didn’t meet certain conditions, or voidable – which means it was legal at the time but isn’t any more. If you are looking to end a civil partnership, you should seek professional legal advice, especially if there are children involved, since financial and housing arrangements will also need to be considered. For free initial advice, please contact Alistair Dobson on 01858 445480 today.