Cohabiting Couples Rights in Ireland: The 2010 Act Redress Scheme

Living together, even for decades, does not make you a spouse under Irish law. There is no such thing as common law marriage here. What does exist is a statutory redress scheme in Part 15 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, which lets a narrow category of former cohabitants ask a court for financial orders when a relationship ends.

The scheme is real, but the entry gate is high and the rights are nothing like a spouse's. This page sets out who counts as a qualified cohabitant, what has to be proved, what a court can order, the time limits, how couples can opt out, and the inheritance and tax position.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page is general legal information for the Republic of Ireland, not legal advice.

There is no common law marriage in Ireland

The phrase has no legal meaning here. Length of cohabitation, joint finances and shared children do not convert a couple into spouses. The clearest illustration is succession: the legal right share the Succession Act 1965 gives a surviving spouse or civil partner does not apply to cohabiting couples, so if a cohabitant dies without a will the surviving partner has no automatic right to any share of the estate.

Two smaller points follow. Moving in with a partner has no effect on a pre-existing will, whereas a later marriage or civil partnership revokes a will unless made in contemplation of it. Assets held in joint names pass to the survivor by survivorship outside the estate, although tax can still arise.

Who is a qualified cohabitant?

Section 172(1) defines a cohabitant as one of two adults, whether of the same or the opposite sex, who live together as a couple in an intimate and committed relationship and who are not within the prohibited degrees of relationship, married to each other, or civil partners of each other. Section 172(2) tells the court to take account of all the circumstances, in particular the duration of the relationship, the basis on which the couple live together, the degree of financial dependence and any financial arrangements between them, whether there are dependent children, and the degree to which they present themselves to others as a couple. Section 172(3) adds that a relationship does not cease to be intimate merely because it is no longer sexual.

Section 172(5) then sets the qualifying period. A qualified cohabitant is an adult who, immediately before the relationship ended, was living with the other adult as a couple for at least two years where they are the parents of one or more dependent children, or at least five years in any other case.

Three points of precision are routinely got wrong online. The statute says the parents of one or more dependent children, so a child of one partner only, or an adult child who is not dependent, does not trigger the shorter two year period. The period must run immediately before the relationship ended, not any historical five years. And under section 206, a redress order can only be made where the relationship ended after Part 15 commenced on 1 January 2011, although time spent living together before that date counts towards the qualifying period.

The disqualifier where a partner is still married

Section 172(6) used to defeat a large number of claims, and a great deal of writing about cohabitants still describes it as though it always applies. Read the current text carefully, because it does not.

As amended by section 4(2)(a) of the Family Law Act 2019, section 172(6) now opens with the words "where the relationship concerned ends before the coming into operation of section 4(2) of the Family Law Act 2019". Section 4(2) came into operation on 1 December 2019. So the disqualifier reaches only relationships that ended before that date. For those, an adult who would otherwise be a qualified cohabitant is not one if, at any time during the relationship, one or both of them was married to somebody else, and at the time the relationship ended each such married adult had not lived apart from their spouse for at least four years during the previous five.

If your relationship ended on or after 1 December 2019, that four in five bar does not apply to you on the face of the amended subsection, even if your partner was still legally married to someone else. This is the opposite of what many summaries say, so it is worth checking the current consolidated text of the Act rather than an older commentary, and worth raising with a solicitor if a claim of yours was previously treated as barred.

What has to be proved

Under section 173(1) and (2) a qualified cohabitant may apply, subject to any agreement under section 202, for an order under section 174, 175 or 187. The court may only make the order if the applicant satisfies it that they are financially dependent on the other cohabitant, that the dependence arises from the relationship or from its ending, and that it is just and equitable to make the order.

Section 173(3) lists what feeds into that judgment, including the financial circumstances, needs and obligations of each cohabitant now and in the future, the rights of any spouse, civil partner or dependent child, the duration of the relationship and degree of commitment, the contributions each made to the other's welfare, income, earning capacity and resources including looking after the home, any disability of the qualified cohabitant, and conduct where it would be unjust to disregard it.

None of this is automatic, and that is the most important corrective on this page. The scheme offers similar types of orders to those available to spouses, but the gate is far higher and, as Citizens Information puts it, you do not have an automatic right to have these orders granted.

A spouse always outranks a cohabitant

Section 173(5) is a hard limit: the court shall not make an order in favour of a qualified cohabitant that would affect any right of any person to whom the other cohabitant is or was married. The rights of a civil partner or former civil partner can be affected; the rights of a spouse cannot. This is why a still married partner's separated spouse can remain entitled to a share of their estate long after the marriage has ended in practice.

What a court can order

Two limits are worth flagging. Under section 175(5) and (6) a maintenance order ceases on the recipient's marriage or civil partnership registration, and none can be made in favour of someone who has already married. Orders under sections 175 and 187 can later be varied, discharged, suspended or revived under section 173(6). Maintenance paid under a redress order is taxable income in the recipient's hands and deductible from the payer's.

The time limits

The general limitation period is in section 195, and it is more flexible than most summaries suggest. Proceedings under Part 15, other than proceedings under sections 173(6) and 194, shall, save in exceptional circumstances, be instituted within two years of the time that the relationship ends, whether through death or otherwise. So the two years is not absolute: it is expressly subject to exceptional circumstances, and it does not apply at all to variation applications under section 173(6) or to estate applications under section 194.

Estate claims have their own clock. Under section 194(1) a qualified cohabitant may apply after the death of their cohabitant but not more than six months after representation is first granted under the Succession Act 1965. That runs from the grant of probate or administration, not from the date of death.

Section 194(2) then imposes a separate and independent bar: where the relationship ended two or more years before the death, the qualified cohabitant cannot apply at all unless one of three narrow saves applies, broadly that they were already receiving periodical payments from the deceased, or that they had applied for a section 174, 175 or 187 order within two years of the relationship ending and those proceedings were pending or unexecuted at the death.

Two ceilings also apply: under section 194(7) the total provision cannot exceed the share the applicant would have been entitled to had the cohabitants been spouses, and under section 194(10) the order cannot affect the legal right of a surviving spouse.

Opting out: cohabitants' agreements under section 202

Cohabitants can contract out of the scheme. Section 202(1) allows them to enter a cohabitants' agreement providing for financial matters during the relationship or when it ends, and section 202(3) allows it to provide that neither may apply for redress under section 173 or for provision from the other's estate under section 194.

Section 202(2) makes an agreement valid only if all three of the following are met: the cohabitants have each received independent legal advice before entering into it, or have received legal advice together and have waived in writing the right to independent advice; the agreement is in writing and signed by both; and the general law of contract is complied with. That alternative in the first condition is real, and is usually omitted from summaries that say independent legal advice is mandatory.

An opt out is not absolute either. Under section 202(4) the court may vary or set aside a cohabitants' agreement in exceptional circumstances where its enforceability would cause serious injustice.

Inheritance and tax: cohabitants are strangers

This is where the gap between cohabiting and marriage is starkest, and it is the point most likely to cost a surviving partner real money. Gifts and inheritances between spouses and civil partners are exempt from Capital Acquisitions Tax entirely, while a cohabiting partner is in none of the favoured Revenue groups and falls into Group C, the stranger group.

Two reliefs are worth investigating with a solicitor, though neither is automatic: the dwelling house exemption may apply where a surviving partner inherits the family home, and property transferred under a redress order carries no CAT, capital gains tax or stamp duty. See our guide to Capital Acquisitions Tax in Ireland.

If you are married and separating, the relevant routes are set out in divorce in Ireland and in our guide to separation agreements and judicial separation. Cohabiting does not give you any right to a partner's surname either; that can only happen by use and repute or by deed poll. More Irish guides are on the Ireland law hub.

Frequently asked questions

This page is general information about the law of the Republic of Ireland and is not legal advice. Whether someone is a qualified cohabitant, and whether an order would be just and equitable, depends entirely on the facts, and nothing here predicts an outcome. For advice on your own circumstances speak to a solicitor, or contact the Legal Aid Board about means tested civil legal aid. Revenue publishes the current CAT thresholds and rates at revenue.ie.