De Facto Relationships Legal Implementations And Family Laws

According to Australian Family Law Act, if you are not legally married to another person, you are in de facto relationships, and you are not related by family. If you are living together on truly domestic basis without legal marriage, the court will assess your relationships or legal matter on the basis of following factors:

• Duration of the relationship
• The nature of your common residence
• The nature of your relationships, whether sexual or non-sexual
• The degree of financial dependency on each other
• The ownership of residency or property, which both of partners use
• The decree of mutual commitment
• If there is a child, the care and support of child or children
• The reputation of relationship in social segment

Why it is important to define relationships?

Many court cases are witnessed by de facto lawyers in Melbourne about de facto relationships where disputes over property or children have been treated as a same way as for a married couple. The law takes accountability of de facto relationships in the same way as for a married one and prescribed rules where partners have the same financial and other many responsibilities same like if they were married.

Of course, if the partners want to separate the don't need a separate legal document, but in case of staying together, the responsibilities and accountability are more or less same like a married couple.

Usually, partners have to show that they have lived together for at least two years to acquire de facto status of relationship. There are exceptions if there is a child in the relationship and other exceptional circumstances.

There is no legal binding to achieve de facto status, but automatically applies when both the partners meet certain criteria.

Right and responsibilities of de facto partners

If a person in de facto relationship, the legal rights and accountability is similar like in married couples. For example, in case of death of one partner, another one would be entitled for the share of property under the Succession Act, receive compensation under workers compensation law (the he or she died during the course of job), claim financial assistance and claim social security.

During live in, de facto couples can choose to draw financial agreements, which is similar to pre married agreement. In the similar way of divorce, de facto couples can draw separation agreement in the court of law. In both cases, couples have to sign the agreement a legal document.

Spousal maintenance and de facto couples with children

Under Australian family law, the obligation of spousal maintenance is limited unlike married couples. If any couple wants to be eligible for spousal maintenance, the applicant must place relevant documents to show the lost earning capacity as a result of the relationship. However, they need to prepare for the training or counseling to increase their capability to earn. Many de facto lawyers deal with couples, advising them how to earn or increase their earning for better living and maintain the financial part of their relationships.

In case of a child or children upbringing, de facto couples fall under the Family Law Act, which states that de facto couples have parental responsibility towards their wards regardless whether they separate or enter into new relationships.