Common Law Partners and the Home, Quebec

You have lived together for twelve years, the house is in his name, and you have paid half of every mortgage payment. In Quebec, that situation gives you, on its own, no right whatsoever over the property. The Civil Code does not treat living together as a matrimonial regime, and the union parentale (parental union) regime that came into force on June 30, 2025 covers only part of couples. Here is who is protected, who is not, and what gets signed before the purchase.

I am a broker, not a notary: this is general information.

The patrimoine familial does not apply to common law partners

The patrimoine familial (family patrimony) is created by marriage, not by living together. Article 414 of the Civil Code is clear: marriage entails the establishment of a family patrimony consisting of certain property of the spouses, regardless of which of them holds a right of ownership in that property. A civil union produces the same effect. Article 415 gives the list: the residences of the family, the furniture that furnishes them, the vehicles used for family travel, the rights accrued during the marriage under a retirement plan, and the earnings recorded under the Régime de rentes du Québec (the Quebec Pension Plan).

No length of cohabitation triggers the equivalent. Five years, fifteen years, thirty years: the house does not enter any shared patrimony merely because you live together. It is the most expensive misunderstanding I see in practice.

Tax law feeds the confusion. For the Canada Revenue Agency, you are common law partners, conjoints de fait, after twelve months of continuous cohabitation, or as soon as your partner is the parent of your child. That definition serves to calculate your income tax. It creates no ownership right.

Union parentale since June 30, 2025: who is covered, who is not

The regime exists, but it does not cover every common law couple. Article 521.20 provides that a union parentale is formed as soon as two conjoints de fait become the father and mother or the parents of the same child. The law applies it automatically only to couples whose common child is born or adopted on or after June 30, 2025.

A couple whose children were all born before that date does not enter it on its own. They will enter it at the birth or adoption of their next common child, or they can join voluntarily by notarial act or by a contract signed before two witnesses, as JuridiQC explains. A couple with no common child is never in a union parentale, no matter how many years have passed.

The same article specifies that conjoints de fait are two persons who live together and present themselves publicly as a couple, regardless of how long they have lived together: there is no three year threshold, contrary to what many people believe.

For the couples covered, article 521.29 creates a patrimoine d’union parentale (parental union patrimony) made up of the residences of the family, the household furniture and the family vehicles. When the union ends, its value, less the debts contracted for the acquisition, improvement, maintenance or preservation of that property, is divided equally (art. 521.34). Two limits: retirement plans and the Régime de rentes du Québec are not in it, and article 521.30 excludes property devolved by succession or gift. A house received as an inheritance stays outside the division. The partners can also withdraw from the regime by mutual agreement, by notarial act en minute (art. 521.33).

Why two articles govern consent, and why it matters on a plex. The Code draws a line at the size of the building. Article 404 covers an immovable with fewer than five dwellings serving in whole or in part as the family residence: the owning spouse may neither alienate it, nor charge it with a real right, nor lease the part reserved for family use without the other’s written consent. Article 405 covers an immovable with five dwellings or more, and it reaches only alienation and the leasing of that part, not charging it with a real right.

The remedy differs too, and that is the real practical difference. Under article 404, if a declaration of family residence was registered against the immovable, the spouse who did not consent may demand that the act be annulled. Under article 405, in the same situation, they do not undo the sale: they may require the acquirer to grant them a lease, on the terms governing residential leases, of the premises they already occupy. A five-plex serving as the family residence therefore is not handled like a duplex, and it falls to the notary to check the registration before the deed.

Common law partners and the home in Quebec: title decides almost everything

Outside a union parentale, only what is entered in the Registre foncier (Quebec’s land register) counts. If the property is in the name of one partner alone, the other is not an owner, even after paying half the payments for ten years. The owner can sell or mortgage without anyone’s agreement: the family residence protections of articles 401 to 407 cover married spouses and, through the effect of article 521.24, partners in a union parentale. Nobody else.

One recourse remains, and it is not a right of ownership. Article 1493 requires a person enriched at the expense of another to indemnify the person deprived, up to the amount of their enrichment, where there is no justification. Article 1495 adds that the indemnity is owed only if the enrichment continues to exist on the day of the demand, and the prescription period is three years (art. 2925). That claim is won with documents: bank statements, invoices, dated transfers.

When both names are on title, you are undivided co-owners. The trap is article 1015: the shares of the undivided co-owners are presumed equal. A down payment of 80% and 20% that is written down nowhere becomes a 50/50 split.

The convention d’indivision: the clauses that count

The convention d’indivision (undivided co-ownership agreement) is the document that replaces the presumptions of the law with your decisions. The clauses that actually change the outcome:

• each person’s real share, the one that follows the money invested, otherwise article 1015 decides in your place;
• the contribution to expenses, given that article 1019 provides only for a contribution to the common charges in proportion to the shares;
• the occupancy indemnity: article 1016 makes the person who has exclusive use of the property liable for an indemnity, so set it in advance;
• decisions. Article 1026 requires a majority in number and in shares for administration, and unanimity to sell or charge the property;
• the right of first refusal, which obliges the partner who wants to sell their share to offer it to the other first;
• the exit: who buys out whom, at what price, using which valuation method.

One technical point that costs dearly when it is neglected: article 1014 requires undivided co-ownership by agreement over an immovable to be published to be set up against third persons. Unpublished, it holds between you, not against the buyer of the other’s share nor against their creditors.

Separation: no one is bound to remain in undivided co-ownership

Article 1030 is the least known and the most decisive rule. No one is bound to remain in undivided co-ownership, and partition may always be demanded unless it has been postponed by agreement, by a testamentary disposition, by a judgment or by operation of law. Either one of you can therefore force the exit. You can postpone that right in writing, for a maximum of 30 years, renewable (art. 1013), and the court may stay the partition for at most two years to avoid a loss (art. 1032).

If one of you keeps the house, that person will have to qualify alone with the lender, on their own income and credit. The affordability calculator gives an order of magnitude before you call your mortgage broker.

For couples in a union parentale, watch the calendar. The family residence protections subsist only 120 days after cohabitation ends (art. 521.24), and applications regarding the use of the residence must be presented to the court within the same 120 day period (art. 521.27). Renunciation of the partition, for its part, must be entered in the register of personal and movable real rights within the year following the end of the union, failing which the renouncing partner is deemed to have accepted (art. 521.41). The other steps are covered in the guide to separation and the home.

Death: without a will, the house does not come to you

This is where couples discover the gap. Article 653 provides that the succession devolves to the surviving spouse who was bound to the deceased by marriage, by civil union or by union parentale. A common law partner who is not in a union parentale is therefore not a legal heir: without a will, that person inherits nothing, even after twenty years and even after paying the mortgage.

An important nuance, and it surprises people too. A partner in a union parentale does inherit without a will, but not everything: where there are descendants, that partner takes one third of the succession and the descendants the other two thirds (art. 666). Failing descendants, the partner receives two thirds and the privileged ascendants, meaning the deceased’s parents, the other third (art. 672).

The practical consequence is the same in both cases: without a will, the survivor can end up co-owning their own house with minor children or with in-laws. A will, a life insurance policy large enough to buy out the heirs' share and an up to date beneficiary designation settle the essentials. What heirs go through is described in inheriting property in Quebec.

What common law partners should sign before buying

All of this is prepared with the notary, before or at the same time as the deed of sale, never after signing.

Frequently asked questions

After how many years of living together am I entitled to half the house? None. The Civil Code sets no duration threshold for conjoints de fait. Only title, a written agreement or a union parentale create rights.

We had a child in 2023 and another in 2026. Are we covered? Yes. The union parentale is formed at the birth of the common child occurring on or after June 30, 2025. Your notary will confirm the exact date.

I pay half the mortgage on a house that is in his name. What happens to me at the breakup? Outside a union parentale, you have no right of ownership. Your possible recourse is unjust enrichment, prescribed after three years, which requires documented proof of your payments.

Is mortgage life insurance enough to protect me if my partner dies? No. It reimburses the lender, it does not make you the owner. Without a will, the house in the other’s name passes to their heirs, free of the mortgage.

To go further, read buying property together and undivided co-ownership and separation, divorce and the home in Quebec.

Buying together without being married? Write to me: we will get the numbers and the structure clear before the showings begin.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges