Separation in Ontario: Your Rights and First Legal Steps

When a relationship ends, you often face urgent questions at once: who stays in the home, how the bills get paid, what happens with the children, and whether you need to see a lawyer right away.

This overview explains how separation generally works in Ontario for married and common-law couples. It covers when separation starts, the rights and duties that follow, and sensible first steps. Your own facts will shape the details.

When does separation start?

For property purposes, the key date is when spouses separate with no reasonable prospect of resuming cohabitation, which is generally the valuation date for equalization. For divorce, spouses are treated as living separate and apart for any period they lived apart and either intended to live separate and apart.

Trying again does not necessarily reset things. A period of living together of no more than 90 days in total, with reconciliation as its primary purpose, does not interrupt the separation period.

Property and the home

Married spouses use the equalization system. On separation with no reasonable prospect of resuming cohabitation, the spouse with the lesser net family property is entitled to one-half of the difference. Debts are subtracted, and pensions count as property. Canada Pension Plan credits are dealt with through credit splitting rather than equalization.

Common-law partners are not spouses for equalization, and are not legally required to split property acquired while living together. They may use a cohabitation or separation agreement instead.

The matrimonial home gets special treatment. It is property in which a person has an interest and which was ordinarily occupied by the spouses as their family residence, and both spouses have an equal right to possession of it. Its full value is shared even if one spouse owned it before the marriage, unless the spouses agree otherwise.

If you rent, the details depend on the lease. Joint tenants share one agreement and are each liable for the entire rent, so the landlord can look to either of you. A spouse who stays may in some cases become the tenant if the other leaves, with listed exceptions. An agreement to end the tenancy should be signed by all the tenants. Talk to a lawyer or a tenant legal clinic before moving out of a shared rental.

Support and children

• Child support: parents must support an unmarried minor child, or a child in full-time education, to the extent they are capable.
• Spousal support: not automatic. It depends on need and the other person's ability to pay, and on whether you were married, lived together at least three years, or had a child in a relationship of some permanence.
• Fault: misconduct such as adultery is not considered when a court makes a spousal support order.
• Parenting decisions: courts decide on the child's best interests and consider all of the child's needs and circumstances.
• Moving with a child: under the Divorce Act, a parent who intends to relocate a child must give at least 60 days' notice to those with parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact.

If both parents agree to a move, no objection or court application is needed. Once an objection is made or a court application is filed, the child cannot be moved until the court makes an order allowing it. The Divorce Act relocation rules apply to parents who are or were married and who have a Divorce Act order, while Ontario's Children's Law Reform Act governs parents who were never married.

Agreements, divorce and court

Only courts can change an order; the Family Responsibility Office cannot change its terms.

Your first steps

• Record your separation date and keep a simple timeline.
• Make copies of financial records: bank accounts, debts, tax returns, pension statements and your lease or mortgage.
• Do not sign anything you do not understand or feel pressured to sign.
• If there is a risk to your safety, get help first; courts can change or waive some notice requirements where there is a risk of family violence.
• Check deadlines early, because equalization applications have time limits.
• Arrange legal advice, especially about the home, children and support.

Some claims run on deadlines, and common-law claims in particular depend on your facts, so earlier advice is usually better than later.

Frequently asked questions