West­min James

A com­mon-law or co­hab­i­ta­tion­al re­la­tion­ship aris­es when there are two per­sons of the op­po­site sex, who not be­ing mar­ried to each oth­er, are liv­ing or have lived to­geth­er as hus­band and wife. In Trinidad and To­ba­go, the par­ties to a com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship have rights un­der the Co­hab­i­ta­tion­al Re­la­tion­ships Act and the Dis­tri­b­u­tion of Es­tates Act.

Co­hab­i­ta­tion­al Re­la­tion­ship Act

This act em­pow­ers the court to make or­ders for main­te­nance for a com­mon-law spouse as well or­ders in re­spect of their rights to prop­er­ty. To be grant­ed any of these or­ders the per­son must sat­is­fy the court that ei­ther:

• the com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship has last­ed for at least five years; or

• there is a child or chil­dren of the re­la­tion­ship; or

• the par­ty has made sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tions to the com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship.

Sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tions in­clude fi­nan­cial con­tri­bu­tions made di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly, con­tri­bu­tions as a home­mak­er or par­ent to the wel­fare of the fam­i­ly dur­ing the com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship. The com­mon-law spouse must ap­ply to the court with­in two years of the date the par­ties stopped liv­ing to­geth­er to be able to ob­tain any of these or­ders.

Un­der the act, par­ties can have a co­hab­i­ta­tion­al re­la­tion­ship or sep­a­ra­tion agree­ment which is an agree­ment made be­tween the par­ties be­fore, dur­ing or af­ter their re­la­tion­ship, in which they agree to their re­spec­tive rights and oblig­a­tions in re­la­tion to main­te­nance and in­ter­est in prop­er­ty dur­ing their re­la­tion­ship or when they cease to live to­geth­er or up­on death. The court still re­tains the pow­er, how­ev­er, to vary these agree­ments in cer­tain cir­cum­stances.

Dis­tri­b­u­tion of Es­tates Act

Un­der this act, af­ter the death of a com­mon-law spouse who has left no valid will, the sur­viv­ing com­mon-law spouse or co­hab­i­tant is en­ti­tled to ben­e­fit from the es­tate of de­ceased once they lived with that per­son in a com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship for at least five years im­me­di­ate­ly be­fore the de­ceased died. The sur­viv­ing com­mon-law spouse is en­ti­tled to ben­e­fit from the es­tate of the de­ceased in the fol­low­ing ways:

(a) where there are no chil­dren and no sur­viv­ing legal­ly mar­ried spouse, the com­mon-law spouse is en­ti­tled to the whole es­tate;

(b) where the de­ceased has a child or chil­dren and no sur­viv­ing legal­ly-mar­ried spouse, the sur­viv­ing com­mon-law spouse is en­ti­tled to half of the es­tate;

(c) where the de­ceased has a sur­viv­ing legal­ly-mar­ried spouse, the sur­viv­ing com­mon-law spouse is on­ly en­ti­tled to a por­tion of the de­ceased's es­tate ac­quired dur­ing the com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship.

To claim his or her share of the es­tate the com­mon-law spouse must file with the High Court a no­tice of in­ter­est as the sur­viv­ing co­hab­i­tant with­in 28 days of the de­ceased's death. The sur­viv­ing com­mon-law spouse must then ap­ply to the court with­in three months there­after to ob­tain an or­der af­firm­ing that there was a com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship and how much of the es­tate he or she is en­ti­tled to.

Ex­ten­sions of time may be ob­tained for these time lim­its if the spouse can show good rea­son. This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er.