Civil Partnership Dissolution

What Dissolution Is and Who Can Apply

Dissolution is the legal process that ends a civil partnership. Under section 37 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 the family court or the High Court can make a dissolution order, a nullity order or a separation order, and a dissolution order ends a subsisting partnership.

You can apply once the partnership has lasted more than a year: section 41 bars an application before the end of one year from the date the partnership was formed. Section 44(1) allows an application by either or both civil partners, so you can apply alone or together. The GOV.UK guide to ending a civil partnership sets out the same conditions.

Civil partnership here is open to same sex and opposite sex couples, and dissolution works the same way for both. Where the relationship was registered abroad, section 215 treats a qualifying overseas relationship as a civil partnership, so it can be dissolved here if the court has jurisdiction under section 221. That depends first on the jurisdiction regulations made under section 219. Failing those, it depends on either partner being domiciled in England and Wales when proceedings begin, or on registration here where the court considers it in the interests of justice. Cross border questions belong with our page on jurisdiction and forum disputes.

In the first year there are two other routes: a separation order under section 56, which the court must make where an applicant states that they seek to be separated and which leaves the partnership in place, and an annulment, available in the first year or later, where the partnership was void under section 49 or voidable under section 50, though section 51 sets time limits where it is voidable. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own processes.

The Legal Test for a Dissolution Order

There is one ground. Section 44(1) allows an application on the ground that the civil partnership has broken down irretrievably, and section 44(1A) requires a statement by the applicant, or by both applicants, that it has. Section 44(4) then tells the court it must take that statement as conclusive evidence and must make a dissolution order.

That is what people mean by no fault: nothing has to be proved about your partner's conduct and the court does not investigate why the relationship ended. The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 brought this in for dissolution and for no fault divorce on the same date, 6 April 2022.

Your civil partner cannot defend the application on the merits. Under rule 7.1(3) of the Family Procedure Rules a case is disputed only where an answer challenges the validity or subsistence of the civil partnership or the jurisdiction of the court, or where a counter application is made. Rule 7.7(1) gives the respondent 14 days from service to file an acknowledgement of service, and longer where the application is served outside England and Wales under rule 6.42. The respondent's side is on our page about responding to an application.

Two waiting periods are built in by section 37A. The second prescribed period is 20 weeks from the start of proceedings, and you cannot confirm that you want the application to continue until it has passed. The first prescribed period is 6 weeks from the conditional order, and the order cannot be made final before it ends. The court can shorten either period in a particular case.

Documents and Common Problems

Practice Direction 7A requires the application to be accompanied by a certificate of the civil partnership, or a similar document, issued under the law of the country of registration, or a certified copy from the appropriate register office. If it is not in English, or in Welsh in Wales, it needs a translation verified by the translator and certified by a notary public or authenticated by a statement of truth. Where you cannot produce it and the matter is urgent, paragraphs 3.2 to 3.4 let you ask for permission to file without it, on a statement explaining why and an undertaking to file it at the earliest opportunity.

Problems that hold applications up:

• no certificate, or an overseas certificate with no authenticated translation
• a name that is not the one on the certificate, where the application asks you to attach a change of name deed or statutory declaration, or explain the change
• no current address for your civil partner, which the court needs to send them a copy
• a joint application where one of you stops cooperating: Practice Direction 7A paragraph 9.1 turns it into a sole application, but only at the conditional order or final order stage
• a final order sought more than 12 months after the conditional order, which rule 7.19(5) says must be explained in writing

Silence from the other side does not stop the case. The court can direct service by an alternative method or at an alternative place under rule 6.19, deem the application served under rule 6.16, or dispense with service under rule 6.20 where service is impracticable.

The court fee is published on the GOV.UK court and tribunal fees page, and whether you can get help paying court fees depends on your savings, which benefits you get and your income. On a joint application both of you must be eligible.

How the Dissolution Process Works

1. We check the one year condition and jurisdiction, and decide with you whether a sole or a joint application fits.
2. We prepare the application with the statement of irretrievable breakdown and the certificate evidence and file it through the online service HM Courts and Tribunals Service requires legal representatives to use, and the court issues it.
3. Your civil partner is served and has 14 days to file an acknowledgement of service, or longer if they are served outside England and Wales. If nothing comes back, we ask the court to deal with service another way.
4. Nothing can be confirmed for 20 weeks, and we use that time to negotiate money, property and arrangements for the children.
5. After the 20 weeks you confirm, or on a joint application you both confirm separately, that you want the application to continue. If satisfied, the court makes the conditional order, and you are still civil partners then.
6. We aim to have a consent order ready for approval, or financial proceedings properly underway, before the partnership itself ends.
7. Six weeks after the conditional order, or three months and six weeks where your partner applied for it, you apply for the final order, and the partnership ends when the court makes it. Keep the final order safe: you will need it to prove your status or to enter into another civil partnership.

What Dissolution Does Not Decide

A dissolution order ends the civil partnership and nothing else. It does not divide your money, property or pensions, and it does not settle where the children live. Those are separate applications, and a dissolution can be finalised with none of them resolved, which stores up trouble.

Section 72 gives effect to Schedule 5, so the financial orders correspond to those on divorce under Part 2 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973: maintenance, lump sums, transfers and sales of property, and pension sharing. Agreed terms are made binding by a court order, and where there is no agreement the court decides in financial remedy proceedings. A separation agreement can hold the position meanwhile.

Arrangements for the children are dealt with by agreement, through mediation, or by asking the court for child arrangements orders.

Two consequences catch people out. Under section 18C of the Wills Act 1837, once the partnership is dissolved your will takes effect as if your former civil partner had died on that date, for their appointment as executor and for any gift to them, unless the will says otherwise, so it is worth having the will reviewed through our will writing service. And if your permission to be in the UK rests on the partnership, see our page on the civil partner visa.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Advice is worth taking early where:

• the civil partnership was registered outside England and Wales, or one of you now lives abroad
• there has been domestic abuse, which makes a joint application unsuitable; if you are in immediate danger call 999, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247
• there are pensions, a business, an inheritance or a property held in one name only
• your civil partner will not engage with the court, or you have no address for them

The order of events matters as much as the outcome: ending the partnership before the finances are settled can affect what happens on a death, and under paragraph 48 of Schedule 5 a former civil partner who marries or enters a new civil partnership is no longer entitled to apply, by reference to the dissolution, for a financial provision order in their favour or a property adjustment order.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We handle civil partnership dissolution from our office at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge, as part of our divorce and separation work. The firm was founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati.

We prepare the application and the certificate evidence, deal with service, apply for the conditional and final orders, and run the financial settlement alongside the dissolution. RakLAW does not offer legal aid and the firm is privately funded. Our charges are on the family law fees page, the first 15 minute consultation is free, and you can call 0203 345 2000 or book an appointment.