Being in a Parental Union

Many couples choose to make a life together and start a family without getting married or forming a civil union. In June 2025, the Quebec government introduced a new legal relationship called a “parental union” to better reflect this reality. 

What is a parental union?

A parental union is a legal relationship that automatically applies to couples who aren’t married or in a civil union, and who had or adopted a child together on or after June 30, 2025. This new legal regime is meant to protect these couples in case they separate, or one of them dies.

Who can be in a parental union?

You’re automatically in a parental union if you meet two conditions. 

First, you and your partner must have at least one child who was born or adopted on or after June 30, 2025. If you already had children together before this date, the parental union begins on the date of the birth or adoption of your next child. 

Second, you and your partner must make a life together. This means that you represent yourselves publicly as a couple and live as a couple. If you live together and have a child together, the law presumes you’re making a life together. 

If you don’t meet these conditions, you can choose to be in a parental union if you and your partner: 

• are least 18 years old, 
• are making a life together, 
• had or adopted at least one child before June 30, 2025. 

You can’t be in a parental union if: 

• you or your partner are already married or in a civil union together, 
• you and your partner are already married or in a civil union or parental union with another person, 
• you and your partner separate before the birth or adoption of your child. 

Legal effects of a parental union

Parental union patrimony

When you form a parental union, some of your property becomes part of a shared parental union patrimony. This patrimony will be divided and shared if one of you dies, or you separate. 

The parental union patrimony includes this property: 

• family residences, 
• furniture in the family residences used by the family (for example, bed, television, fridge, computer, table, couch, stove), 
• vehicles used for the family (for example, car, ATV, motorcycle, boat, snowmobile). 

Other assets like pension funds, salary earned during the parental union, RRSPs and inherited property aren’t automatically included in the patrimony. But you can agree in writing to add or remove assets from your parental union patrimony any time during your parental union. Keep in mind, you can only remove the property listed above by signing a contract in front of a notary.  

Compensatory allowance 

If you separate, and one partner thinks they lost wealth while enriching the other partner during the parental union, they can ask a judge to grant them a compensatory allowance. The enriched partner might then have to compensate the impoverished partner for their contributions.

Impoverishment can happen in different ways. For example, you could stop working to look after your children or decide to work for free in your partner’s business.

Protecting the family home

During a parental union, you can’t sell, rent long term or mortgage the family residence without your partner’s consent. This protection continues for 120 days after you separate. This is meant to protect people who live in their primary residence without owning it

If you rent, and your name isn’t on the lease, you’re also protected. A judge may allow you to stay in the home temporarily. You have 120 days after separating to ask a judge to decide who will stay on the lease and who will get the furniture in the rental unit.

When your partner dies without a will

Before the parental union came into effect, common-law partners could only inherit property from each other if they put it in their wills.

Today, if someone in a parental union dies without a will, the surviving partner automatically gets one-third of the estate. The rest goes to the children of the deceased partner.