How Long Until You Are Common Law in BC? The 2-Year Clock

Two years. Under section 3 of the Family Law Act, you become a spouse in British Columbia once you have lived in a marriage-like relationship for a continuous period of at least two years. The harder questions are when that clock started and what has stopped it.

This post is about the clock itself. For the wider picture of what spousal status brings, start with our guide, are we in a common law relationship in British Columbia? SiLaw Group Family Lawyers spends a surprising amount of time on dates in our common law work, because the dates decide the money.

When Does the Two-Year Clock Start?

Section 3(3) of the Family Law Act answers this directly: a relationship between spouses begins on the earlier of the date on which they began to live together in a marriage-like relationship and the date of their marriage. For an unmarried couple only the first date matters. The clock starts when you began living together as a couple, not when the relationship became serious, not when you got engaged, and not when you first appeared on the same lease.

That start date does more than count toward two years. Under section 84(2)(g) of the Family Law Act, family property includes the amount by which excluded property has increased in value since the later of the date the relationship began and the date the property was acquired. If one of you owned a condo when the other moved in, the growth in its value is measured from the move-in date. Our two-year rule page explains why we press clients to fix that date while the evidence is fresh.

What Does "Living Together in a Marriage-Like Relationship" Mean?

The Family Law Act does not define either phrase, and no checklist exists in the statute. Courts look at the relationship as a whole: a shared home, shared finances or shared expenses, how the two of you presented yourselves to family and friends, children, and what each of you intended. A couple who spent most nights together while keeping two apartments may or may not have been living together in the Act's sense. A couple with a joint lease may have been roommates. The label follows the substance, not the paperwork, and the two years only run while the relationship is marriage-like.

What Does "Continuous" Mean, and What Interrupts the Clock?

Section 3(1)(b)(i) of the Family Law Act requires a continuous period of at least two years, and the Act does not define continuous. There is no rule that a break of a particular length resets the count. Whether a rough patch, a work posting in another city, or an on-and-off stretch breaks continuity is a question of fact about the relationship as a whole. A couple can live apart for a period and still be in a continuous marriage-like relationship. A couple can share an address and have separated.

Separation is what ends the clock, and the Act is practical about what separation looks like. Under section 3(4) of the Family Law Act, spouses may be separated despite continuing to live in the same residence, and a court may consider as evidence of separation one spouse communicating to the other an intention to separate permanently, or an action that demonstrates that intention. The same provision that decides whether a two-year relationship has ended also bears on whether an earlier stretch counts toward the two years at all.

One further wrinkle applies once you are spouses. For property division purposes, section 83(1) of the Family Law Act says spouses are not considered to have separated if, within one year after separation, they begin to live together again primarily to reconcile and continue for one or more periods totalling at least 90 days. A reconciliation that lasts can erase a separation date, with consequences for both the property analysis and the deadline described below.

Does Having a Child Together Shorten the Two Years?

For support, yes. For property, no. Section 3(1)(b)(ii) of the Family Law Act makes a person who has lived in a marriage-like relationship and has a child with the other person a spouse "except in Parts 5 [Property Division] and 6 [Pension Division]". A couple with a child can therefore face spousal support claims before the two-year mark. Dividing the home, savings or a pension under the Act still requires the full two years.

Two points often get tangled with this exception. First, living together in a marriage-like relationship is still required. Parents who never lived together are not spouses under the Act. Second, child support has nothing to do with spousal status. Section 147(1) of the Family Law Act places a duty on each parent and guardian to provide support for the child, however long the parents lived together. Our child support in BC page explains how amounts are set.