De Facto Not Living Together: Can You Still Be Considered a Couple in Australia?

You are a couple. Anyone who knows you would say so. You just do not share one front door. Maybe you work FIFO and you are away half the month. Maybe your jobs are in different cities. Maybe one of you moved for work, or into care. And somewhere in the back of your mind sits a quiet question: if it ever came to it, would the law even count the two of you as a couple?

Let me give you a straight answer. Yes, you can be de facto in Australia without living together. The law asks whether you share your lives as a couple, not whether you share an address.

This page shows you how to tell whether you qualify, how to prove it when you live apart, and what you can actually claim if you do.

A quick self-check: do you likely qualify?

No single item on this list decides it, and none of them is a guarantee. Think of it as a first read on where you stand, not a verdict.

You likely qualify if:

• Your finances or your commitments overlap: shared bills, money moving between you, joint plans for the future.
• The people around you treat you as a couple, and you present as one.
• There is an ongoing, mutual commitment to a shared life.
• You are raising or caring for children together.
• There is a genuine reason you live apart: work, FIFO, illness, or care.

You likely do not qualify if:

• You are casually dating, and nothing more.
• Your finances are fully separate with no real interdependence.
• You do not present as a couple to anyone.
• There is no mutual commitment to building a life together.

The law is clear that no one factor is decisive here (Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), s 4AA(3)). A court weighs the whole picture.

Can you be de facto if you do not live together?

Yes, and this is where a lot of people get caught out. They assume “living together” means one house, one address. Under the Family Law Act, the test is whether you are a couple living together on a “genuine domestic basis” (s 4AA). “Living together” there means sharing your lives, not sharing a roof.

The High Court has confirmed the principle. In Fairbairn v Radecki, the court accepted that a de facto relationship does not automatically end just because a couple stops living together, including where one partner moves into aged care. What matters is whether the couple still share their lives, not the fact of two addresses. (On the facts of that case the relationship had in fact broken down for other reasons, but the principle stands.)

What the court actually looks at

When it has to decide whether a de facto relationship exists, the court weighs a set of circumstances set out in the Act (s 4AA(2)). In plain terms:

• How long you have been together, and the nature and extent of any time under one roof. Living apart for a genuine reason does not cancel this out.
• Whether there is a sexual relationship.
• How tangled your finances are, and any arrangements to support each other. Money moving between two homes still counts.
• The property you own, use, or have bought together, like a house or a car you both use across the two households.
• How committed you are to a shared life. Long-distance couples plan holidays, big purchases, and a future together.
• Whether you have registered your relationship under a state or territory law.
• The care and support of any children, including children who move between your homes.
• Your public reputation as a couple: how you are seen and treated by the people around you.

So how do you tell? I put it to people this way:

Do you act like a couple in public? Do you have shared bank accounts? Do you go on holidays together? How does the world perceive you? It’s not just about living together for two years, which is a bit of a common misconception. It’s about how you lived.

How do you prove a de facto relationship when you live apart?

When you are not under one roof, the everyday proof that a couple lives together is not there. So you build the picture from what you can show. The more of these you can put forward, the stronger your position, because the court weighs the whole picture, not one box.

• Joint bank accounts, shared bills, or money moving between the two of you.
• Messages, call logs, and a shared calendar that show your day-to-day life together.
• Statutory declarations from friends and family who saw you as a couple.
• Shared parenting, holidays, and the time you spent together.
• Photos and public recognition: social media, events, being introduced as partners.
• Wills, insurance, or superannuation nominations naming each other.

Here is a catch worth knowing before you assume separate finances keep you separate:

Some people think they’re protecting themselves by shielding that money. You’re having separate bank accounts. Her wages go into her account, his wages go into his account, and the bills are split in half. But when a de facto relationship is established, and property settlement occurs, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got 50 grand in your savings account. It may be assessed as part of the property pool if you were de facto.

Keeping your money in separate accounts is one factor among many. It is not a wall around your assets.

How long do you have to claim? Two clocks, not one

People run two separate questions together here, and it costs them. Let me pull them apart.

Does a de facto relationship exist? There is no minimum time. A de facto relationship can exist in well under two years (s 4AA). The two-year figure you have heard is not about whether you are a couple.

Can you apply for a property settlement? That is the other question, and it has a gateway (s 90SB). Generally you can apply if you were together at least two years, OR you have a child of the relationship, OR you registered your relationship, OR there would be a serious injustice if no order were made.

There is one more clock, and this is the one that catches people out. Once a de facto relationship ends, you generally have two years from separation to apply for a property settlement or spousal maintenance (s 44(5)). Leave it later than that and you need the court’s permission to proceed at all (s 44(6)), which you cannot count on. The Federal Circuit and Family Court sets out the same gateway and application window. If you have separated, do not sit on it.

What you can claim if you are de facto

If you are de facto, you have broadly the same financial rights as a married couple. Here is what that covers.

• Property. A court can adjust who owns what between you, whatever the title says (s 90SM). The June 2025 family law changes set out the approach the court takes to dividing property more clearly in the Act itself, and where family violence has affected the finances, the court must now take its economic effect into account.
• Spousal maintenance. If one of you cannot reasonably support yourself and the other can help, ongoing financial support may be payable.
• Parenting arrangements. Living apart already does not change your rights and responsibilities as parents. If children are involved, the focus is on their best interests. Our parenting arrangements page walks through how this works.
• Superannuation. Super counts as property and can be split between you, the same as it can for a married couple. It is often the second-largest asset after a home, and it is easy to overlook.

One thing to know about where you live. The Family Law Act is federal, so it applies right across Australia, with one exception for property. If you are in Western Australia, de facto property settlements are dealt with under separate state legislation (the Family Court Act 1997 (WA)) rather than the sections of the Family Law Act above, and the WA rules have their own application requirements. Everything else on this page describes the federal position that applies in the rest of the country.

If you are de facto but living apart, our de facto lawyers can tell you where you actually stand. And for how a settlement runs from start to finish, and how a pool is actually divided, see our property settlement page.

Unsure whether your relationship qualifies?

If you live apart and you are not sure where you stand, that uncertainty is the hardest part, and it is the part worth clearing up early. If you have separated, remember the two-year window to apply does not wait for you to feel ready.

Reach out to our team for a free discovery call. We will explain your rights, tell you honestly whether we think you qualify, and set out your next steps. Call 1300 614 732 or send us a message. No pressure, no judgment, just clear advice.