TERMINATION, ANNULMENT AND DISSOLUTION

Civil partnerships will be brought to an end on the occurrences of the following events:

• Death.
• Presumption of death – orders can be made by the court where there are reasonable grounds for supposing the other civil partner is dead.
• The fact a civil partner has been absent for a period of more than seven years, and the applicant has no reason to believe that the partner has been living within that time, will be sufficient time to assume that the civil partner is dead.

A partnership will be declared a nullity if there is a procedural irregularity of which both parties were aware at the time of registration, or if the parties were not eligible to register as civil partners.

Procedural irregularities will include failure to give proper notice, a partnership document not being issued, place of registration being incorrectly specified in the notice, and a registrar not being present (section 49). In these instances the partnership will be considered void ab initio and can only be validated at a later date by an order of the Lord Chancellor in limited circumstances.

A civil partnership is voidable where:

• parties do not validly consent;
• either party was suffering from a mental disorder as to be unfit for partnership;
• one party was pregnant by another person other than the other party;
• after formation an interim gender recognition certificate has been issued;
• one party has acquired gender under section 50 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

There is no requirement to consummate a partnership or for the relationship to be sexual.

Proceedings for nullity must be commenced within three years of the formation of the partnership.

The ground for dissolution is ‘irretrievable breakdown’ of the partners’ relationship proved by the existence of any of the four facts that mirror section l(2)(b)-(e) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA).

Adultery is not a fact, that is, not a ground for dissolution. However, sexual infidelity may fall within the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.

A dissolution order would not be granted under paragraph (c) (separation for five years) if it would cause grave financial hardship to the respondent and it would be wrong in all the circumstances to dissolve the partnership.

As with a divorce, no application may be made for a dissolution order before a year has elapsed from the date of the formation of a partnership. However, the time bar does not prevent an application being made on the basis of events that occurred during that first year (section 41).