Most people asking about an annulment need a divorce. An annulment says the marriage was never valid, and Ontario courts grant one only on narrow grounds — not because the marriage was short, unhappy, or unconsummated by choice. Here is the real difference.
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A divorce ends a marriage that was valid. An annulment — the court calls it a declaration of nullity — says there was never a valid marriage to end. The distinction sounds enormous and usually changes very little. Both leave you free to remarry. Both come from the Superior Court of Justice. Neither erases the years you actually lived together.
Invalid marriages come in two kinds. A <strong>void</strong> marriage was never good in law — one of you was already married, or you are related within the prohibited degrees. A <strong>voidable</strong> marriage stands until a court sets it aside, and only the spouses can ask. Which kind you have decides who may apply and whether the marriage counted for anything in the meantime.
A religious annulment is not a civil one. A decree from a church tribunal changes your standing in that faith and nothing else. If you remarry on the strength of it without a civil divorce or a declaration of nullity, the second marriage is void, and the problem surfaces years later — usually on a death, a property sale, or an immigration application.
Divorce is federal, under the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/D-3.4/">Divorce Act</a>. Nullity is not. It comes from provincial law and the older common law of marriage, and no waiting period attaches to it. That is the one genuine procedural advantage: the one-year separation the Divorce Act normally requires does not apply, because you are not alleging a marriage broke down. In exchange you take on a harder job — proving a specific defect, on evidence, rather than letting time pass.
The first category is capacity. A prior existing marriage. A relationship within the prohibited degrees. A party under the minimum age to marry. In each of these the marriage is void from the beginning, and the declaration simply records what was already true from the day of the ceremony. Capacity cases are the easiest to prove, because they usually turn on a document rather than on anyone's account of events.
The second is consent. A marriage can be set aside where consent was obtained by duress, or by fraud going to the identity of the person or the nature of the ceremony itself. Fraud about wealth, character, past relationships or a change of heart about having children is not enough. Courts have been consistent that discovering who someone really is does not void a marriage.
The third is incapacity at the ceremony — a spouse who could not understand the nature of what they were entering because of mental illness or intoxication. Inability to consummate the marriage also counts, where the inability is physical or psychological and permanent. <em>Refusal is not inability.</em> A couple who simply chose not to have sex has no ground here.
What is never a ground: a brief marriage, an unhappy one, a wedding regretted the next morning, or a spouse who lied about money. Ontario has no quick exit for short marriages. If you married three weeks ago and want out, the route is separation and then a divorce, on the same timetable as everyone else.
This is where most annulment enquiries end. The <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90f03">Family Law Act</a> treats a person who entered a void or voidable marriage <strong>in good faith</strong> as a spouse for property and support purposes. Annul the marriage and the equalization claim can still stand. Nullity does not put the money back where it started, and it does not unwind property that changed hands along the way.
Spousal support behaves the same way. Entitlement turns on the relationship the two of you actually had — the roles, the economic disadvantage, the length of it — not on the label a court eventually puts on the ceremony. A short marriage produces a short obligation or none at all, whether it ends by divorce or by nullity.
Children are untouched. Parentage, child support, decision-making responsibility and parenting time all run from the child's relationship with each parent. No Ontario court treats a child differently because the parents' marriage turned out to be invalid. Where children are involved the annulment question is a side issue and the parenting arrangements are the real file — deal with those first, in writing.
So the practical question is rarely divorce versus annulment. It is what each of you keeps, what support is owed, and what happens with the children. An uncontested divorce here is a flat fee — <a href="/pricing">$1,693.87, taxes included</a> — with property and support scoped separately. See <a href="/family">Family Law</a> for the full range.
No. Ontario has no short-marriage annulment. Length is irrelevant to nullity — a twenty-year marriage between people related within the prohibited degrees is void, and a three-week marriage between two people free to marry is valid. If you married recently and want out, you separate and then divorce like everyone else.
Usually not. There is no one-year waiting period for nullity, which sounds faster. But a contested nullity application is a full court proceeding with evidence about capacity, consent or consummation. An uncontested divorce is largely paperwork. The waiting year runs while you get on with your life, so it rarely costs you real time.
Only if one of you is unable to consummate, not unwilling. The inability can be physical or psychological, but it has to be permanent and incurable. A couple who decided not to have sex, or who separated before they got round to it, has no ground. This is the most commonly misunderstood ground in Ontario.
There is nothing to divorce — a bigamous marriage is void from the start. You can still seek a declaration of nullity so the record is clear for future marriages, land registrations and estates. And because you married in good faith, you may still be treated as a spouse for equalization and support purposes under the Family Law Act.
In law, yes — the marriage is treated as never having been valid. In practice, the marriage certificate still exists, the ceremony still happened, and the Family Law Act still protects a spouse who married in good faith. Tell your lawyer if you have made a will, changed your name, or filed taxes as married.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.