Common-Law Relationships in Nova Scotia: Rights and Property

In Nova Scotia, living together does not by itself give a common-law partner the right to divide property or to inherit from a partner who dies without a will; those rights only arrive if the couple takes the extra step of registering a domestic partnership, while spousal support becomes available automatically once the couple has cohabited for two years or has a child together.

Information last verified on 2026-08-15. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Nova Scotia Runs Two Separate Systems for Unmarried Couples

Most provinces give common-law couples a single, if limited, set of automatic rights. Nova Scotia does something different: it separates spousal support, which becomes available automatically once a couple meets a cohabitation test, from everything else, property division, inheritance, and roughly twenty other statutory protections, which stay closed to an unmarried couple unless they formally register as domestic partners.

That split is the single most important thing to understand before reading anything else about common-law status in Nova Scotia. For how the other provinces compare, see our overview of common-law relationships across Canada.

Track One: Spousal Support Is Automatic

Under the Parenting and Support Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 160, section 2(m), you count as a "spouse" for support purposes if you are not married to your partner and either:

• You are domestic partners, or former domestic partners, registered under the Vital Statistics Act (covered below), or
• You cohabited in a conjugal relationship continuously for at least two years, or
• You cohabited in a conjugal relationship and have a child together, regardless of how long the relationship lasted.

Meeting any one of these three routes opens the door to a spousal support claim under the same Act married spouses use. It does not, on its own, create any right to property or inheritance; those are governed by entirely separate statutes, discussed below. For how support amounts and duration are generally worked out once entitlement is established, see our guide to spousal support in Canada.

Track Two: Registering a Domestic Partnership

Nova Scotia is one of the few provinces that lets an unmarried couple opt into full spouse-equivalent status on demand, without waiting out a cohabitation clock. The mechanism is domestic partnership registration under sections 52 to 56 of the Vital Statistics Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 494.

Two people who are cohabiting, or intend to cohabit, in a conjugal relationship sign a witnessed declaration. Registration is barred if either person is a minor, is not ordinarily resident in Nova Scotia or does not own property there, is already married, or is already a party to a subsisting declaration with someone else.

Nova Scotia's own guidance for registering states the practical eligibility requirements plainly: both partners must "be 19 or older, have lived in Nova Scotia for at least 3 months immediately before registering your domestic partnership or own real estate in Nova Scotia." Those specific figures were not found spelled out in the Act's own text, which speaks more generally of minors and ordinary residence, but the province's own service page states them as the current requirements for registering.

What registration actually does is the most important structural fact on this page. Under section 54(2) of the Act, once registered, domestic partners have, as between themselves and with respect to any other person, the same rights and obligations as a spouse under, among other statutes, the Intestate Succession Act, the Matrimonial Property Act, the Probate Act, and as a widow or widower under the Testators' Family Maintenance Act, plus more than a dozen other Nova Scotia statutes covering pensions, insurance, workers' compensation, and health decision-making. Registering converts a common-law relationship into full spouse status across roughly twenty statutes in one step. Not registering, however long the couple has lived together, does not get them there.

Property Division: No Rights Without Registering

The Matrimonial Property Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 275, defines "spouse" narrowly: "either of a man and woman who (i) are married to each other, (ii) are married to each other by a marriage that is voidable and has not been annulled by a declaration of nullity, or (iii) have gone through a form of marriage with each other, in good faith, that is void and are cohabiting or have cohabited."

There is no cohabitation-only branch in that definition. An unmarried, unregistered common-law partner in Nova Scotia has no statutory right to equal division of matrimonial property, no matter how long the relationship lasted. Registering a domestic partnership bridges this gap entirely, through the section 54(2) extension described above.

Without registering, the available remedies are the same equitable doctrines that apply nationally: a claim for unjust enrichment, potentially resulting in a constructive trust over specific property, along the lines the Supreme Court of Canada set out in Kerr v. Baranow, 2011 SCC 10, or whatever a private cohabitation agreement provides. The Matrimonial Property Act's own "domestic contract" concept is structured around married or registered spouses, so an unmarried couple's agreement functions as an ordinary contract rather than a statutory domestic contract. See our guide to separation agreements in Canada for how these agreements are typically structured.

If Your Partner Dies Without a Will: Also No Rights Without Registering

The Intestate Succession Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 236, is even more stark than the property statute. Its interpretation section defines only "estate," "issue," and "net value," it contains no definition of "spouse" at all, and no reference anywhere in the Act to cohabitation, common-law partners, or domestic partners. The distribution scheme gives a surviving spouse and one child half the estate, plus a preferential share, read in the currently consolidated text as $50,000, before the residue is split (the consolidation's header dates to 1999, so a reader relying on that figure should confirm it has not been updated by a later amendment); a spouse with two or more children gets a third. An unregistered common-law partner does not appear anywhere in this scheme and inherits nothing under it.

The fallback that exists for spouses left out of a will, the Testators' Family Maintenance Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 465, does not help either by default: it defines "dependant" as "the widow or widower or the child of a testator," again with no cohabitation branch. So an unregistered common-law partner in Nova Scotia has neither an automatic intestacy share nor a dependant's relief claim.

The bridge is the same one described above: section 54(2)(e) and (o) of the Vital Statistics Act extend both Intestate Succession Act spouse status and Testators' Family Maintenance Act widow/widower status to a registered domestic partner. Registering, or simply having a will, closes this gap completely. See our guide to dying without a will in Canada for how intestacy generally works.

Federal Programs Use Different Rules Entirely

CPP survivor benefits and the CRA's 12-month common-law tax definition are federal rules that apply the same way in every province, including Nova Scotia. They do not track Nova Scotia's 2-year support threshold or its domestic-partnership registration system, and qualifying under one does not automatically qualify a couple under the other.

What Nova Scotia Common-Law Couples Should Actually Do

• If you want full spouse status now, and you meet the eligibility requirements (19 or older, 3 months' Nova Scotia residency or NS real estate ownership), registering a domestic partnership is the fastest route to property, inheritance, and pension rights equivalent to marriage.
• If you do not register, a written cohabitation agreement is the main tool for setting your own property terms, and a will is essential, since intestacy otherwise leaves an unregistered partner with nothing. See our guide to making a will in Canada.
• Proving cohabitation for the 2-year or shared-child support test generally follows the same practical pattern used nationally, joint finances, a joint lease or mortgage, tax filings, and public representation as a couple, though no Nova Scotia-specific statutory checklist was found in the Act text itself.

Married, Registered, and Unregistered Compared

Nova Scotia's registration option is unusual nationally. Ontario, for comparison, has no equivalent opt-in and instead folds a 3-year (or child-based) test directly into its own definition of spouse for support purposes only; see our page on common-law relationships in Ontario for that contrast.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Nova Scotia family law and is not legal advice. Two figures here carry a hedge worth noting: the exact ages and residency requirements for domestic partnership registration (19 years old, 3 months' residency, or property ownership) come from the Province's own service page rather than the regulation's own text, which was not independently opened in this research pass, and the Intestate Succession Act's $50,000 preferential share is read from a consolidation with a 1999 header date and should be confirmed against the current figure before relying on it. Family law and estate outcomes depend on the specific facts of each relationship. Consult a licensed Nova Scotia family law lawyer about your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do common-law partners in Nova Scotia have the same rights as married couples?

Not automatically. Nova Scotia common-law partners qualify for spousal support after 2 years of cohabitation, or sooner with a shared child, but they get no automatic right to divide property or inherit on intestacy. Those rights only arrive if the couple registers a domestic partnership under the Vital Statistics Act, which then treats them as a spouse under about 20 different Nova Scotia statutes.

How long do you have to live together to be considered common law in Nova Scotia?

For spousal support, the threshold is 2 years of continuous cohabitation, or any length of time if you and your partner have a child together. For property division and inheritance, there is no cohabitation threshold that creates automatic rights; those only come from registering a domestic partnership, regardless of how long the couple has lived together.

What is a registered domestic partnership in Nova Scotia and how do you get one?

It is a formal declaration, signed and witnessed, that two cohabiting or soon-to-cohabit partners file under the Vital Statistics Act. Nova Scotia's guidance says both partners must be 19 or older and have lived in the province for at least 3 months immediately before registering, or own real estate in Nova Scotia. Once registered, the couple has the same rights as married spouses under the Matrimonial Property Act, the Intestate Succession Act, and roughly 20 other statutes.

Do unmarried partners split property when they separate in Nova Scotia?

Not unless they registered a domestic partnership. The Matrimonial Property Act defines spouse as a married person, so an unregistered common-law partner has no statutory right to equal division of property, regardless of relationship length. The fallback is a claim for unjust enrichment or a cohabitation agreement.

Does a common-law partner inherit automatically in Nova Scotia if there is no will?

No, unless the couple registered a domestic partnership. The Intestate Succession Act does not define spouse at all, and the Testators Family Maintenance Act's dependant's relief route covers only a widow, widower, or child, not an unmarried partner. Registering, or having a will, closes this gap.

Is Nova Scotia's common-law rule the same as the CRA's definition for taxes?

No. The CRA generally treats a couple as common-law for federal tax purposes after 12 months of cohabitation, which is a separate federal rule that does not track Nova Scotia's own 2-year support threshold or its domestic-partnership registration system.

What should a Nova Scotia common-law couple do if they do not want to register a domestic partnership?

Put a written cohabitation agreement in place to set property terms, since the default law gives an unregistered partner very little, and make a will, since an unregistered common-law partner inherits nothing automatically on intestacy in Nova Scotia.