Ontario family law · 2026
Common-law separation in Ontario — what you keep, what you owe, and what changes without a marriage.
Common-law is not married-lite. Property works differently, support works almost the same, and the gap between the two is where most men get caught. This page maps both. Free guide, free calculator, no signup.
No automatic property split
Unlike married spouses, common-law partners keep what is in their own name. There is no equalization by default.
Support works the same
Three years together, or a child, opens a spousal support claim under the same SSAG range married spouses use.
Trust claims, not equalization
The only path to a share of property in the other's name is proving a contribution that would be unfair to ignore.
If you were common-law in Ontario, the rule that matters most is the one almost no one expects: there is no automatic property split. A married spouse is entitled to half the wealth the couple built during the marriage. A common-law partner is not. What is in your name stays yours. What is in your partner's name stays theirs. That single difference changes the entire shape of a common-law separation, and getting it wrong — in either direction — costs men real money.
Support is the other half of the picture, and here common-law and marriage are close to identical. A common-law partner can claim spousal support after three years of living together, or after a relationship of some permanence with a child. The same Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines apply — the SSAG, the formulas every Ontario court works from. Child support and parenting do not change at all: child support follows the Federal Child Support Guidelines based on income, married or not.
So the common-law man's situation splits cleanly. On support and the children, treat it like any other separation. On property, understand that nothing is shared by default, and that the only route to a share of something in your partner's name — or your partner's route to a share of yours — runs through a trust claim. The sections below walk both sides, and the calculator gives you the support figures.
Why common-law property works differently in Ontario
Ontario's equalization of net family property — the even split of the wealth a couple gained during the marriage — applies only to married spouses. It is written into the Family Law Act, and it simply does not extend to common-law partners, no matter how many years you lived together.
In practice this means each partner walks away with what is in their own name. The house, the accounts, the pension, the vehicles — they go with whoever owns them on paper. If the home is in your name, your partner has no automatic claim to its value. If it is in your partner's name, you have none to it.
This cuts both ways. A common-law man who owns the home keeps it, where a married man would split its value. A common-law man whose partner owns the home gets nothing automatic from it, where a married man would. Knowing which side of that line you are on is the first thing to establish.
When a trust claim is the only property remedy
There is one route to a share of property held in the other partner's name: a trust claim. The law recognises that sometimes one partner builds an asset while the other contributes in ways that do not show up on the title — paying toward the mortgage, funding renovations, or doing the unpaid work at home that freed the other to earn and save.
The legal name for the main version is unjust enrichment: you contributed, your partner was enriched by it, and there is no good reason they should keep the full benefit. Win it and a court can order a share of the value or of the asset itself. These claims turn entirely on evidence — bank records, receipts, and a clear account of who put in what. The man who kept records has a claim; the man who did not is arguing from memory.
Why a separation agreement matters even more here
Married spouses have a default framework — equalization and the courts — that sorts out property even when nothing is written down. Common-law partners have no such backstop. Without an agreement, every contested question becomes a trust claim or a support fight, decided by litigation rather than by terms you set.
A written separation agreement is what creates certainty for a common-law couple: who keeps which property, whether any support is paid and for how long, and how parenting is arranged. It is the document that does the work the equalization rules do automatically for married couples. For common-law men, it is not optional housekeeping — it is the structure itself.
Support works the same common-law — see your numbers.
- Child support at your income, under the Federal Guidelines
- The spousal support range, if the three-year or child threshold is met
- What lands in your account each pay period after tax
- A PDF you can email to yourself — no signup, no credit card
Reviewed May 28, 2026 · Plain-language information for Ontario.
Common questions
What men want to know.
Plain-language answers about how this works in Ontario — without the disclaimers that don't help anyone.
Related guides & tools
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Entitlement, the SSAG range, and how long support lasts — all of which apply to common-law partners too.
OpenOntario Separation Agreement Template
The seven sections of the document that does, by agreement, what equalization does automatically for married couples.
OpenWhat a separation agreement covers
What goes in the agreement, the disclosure that protects it, and how to make it binding.
OpenThe First 90 Days — the full guide
A plain-language 35-page map of Ontario separation, written for men. The process, the rules, and a week-by-week plan. Free.
OpenAbout Cairn
Cairn is an Ontario-built preparation tool for men going through separation. It gives you orientation, document checklists, and the financial picture in plain language — so you can prepare and then work with a legal professional.