Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, 2010

• Original version: <a href='/vid/civil-partnership-and-certain-907695918'>Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, 2010</a>

Shared Home Protection pursuant to the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, 2010

The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, 2010 (“the Act”) was signed into law on the 19th July 2010 and came into operation on the 1st January 2011 (S.I. No. 648/2010).

The Act contains two distinct sections dealing with both (1) the civil registration of same-sex partnerships and (2) the rights and duties of cohabitants.

1. Definitions:

The definitions are stated in Part (1) of the Act and include as follows;

Section 2:
“civil partnership registration” means registration of a civil partnership under section 59D (as inserted by Section 16 of this act) of the Civil Registration Act, 2004.

Section 3:
For the purposes of this Act a civil partner is either of two persons of the same sex who are:

(a) parties to a civil partnership registration that has not been dissolved or the subject of a decree of nullity, or

(b) parties to a legal relationship of a class that is the subject of an order made under section 5 that has not been dissolved or the subject of a decree of nullity.

2. Civil Partnership

The Act establishes a statutory Civil Partnership registration scheme for same sex partners, together with a range of rights and obligations consequent on registration i.e. including maintenance, protection of shared homes, succession and pensions. The Act also sets out the manner in which Civil Partnerships may be dissolved. Broadly speaking, the Act confers rights and duties on registration on civil partners similar to that of spouses in family, property and succession law. The Act also provides for dissolution and nullity.

Section 4 confers a power on the court to make a declaration as to the status of a civil partnership. Section 5 allows the Minister for Justice and Equality to recognise classes of “legal relationships” registered outside the State as civil partnerships under certain criteria for the recognition of foreign legal relationships by Order. Section 16 by the insertion of a new section after Section 59 into the Civil Registration Act, 2004 and sets out the formalities for registration of a civil partnership which is similar to registration of a marriage (i.e. three months notice of intended registration, to take place at an approved venue by a Registrar, the parties must not already be in a civil partnership or married, parties must be over 18 and cannot be within the prohibited degrees of relationship).

3. Shared Home

Shared home protection is provided for in Part 4 of the Act and shared home is defined in Section 27 of the Act, as:

(a) subject to paragraph (b) a dwelling in which the civil partners ordinarily reside; and

(b) in relation to a civil partner whose protection is in issue, the dwelling in which that civil partner ordinarily resides or, if he or she has left the other partner, in which he or she ordinarily resided before leaving.

The provisions and protection of the shared home mirror the protection given to the family home under Family Home Protection Act 1976 as amended, and prevents the sale or any conveyance of a shared home by one civil partner in the absence of consent of the other (unless a contractual agreement in relation to the property had been made prior to registration of the civil partnership Section 28 (2) of the Act).

Under Section 28 of the Act, any alienation of the shared home in the absence of consent subject to subsections (2),(3) and (8) to (14) is void. This mirrors the position in S 3(1)of the Family Home Protection Act, 1976. That section was mitigated by Section 54(1)(b) of the Family Law Act, 1995 and this Act has similar provisions under Sections 28 (8) to (14).

Section 28 (11) states :

A conveyance is deemed not to be and never to have been void by reason of sub-section (1) unless-

a) it has...