Breaking up after living together without a marriage report

To be recognized as a de facto marriage (사실혼), the two of you must have intended to live as a married couple and actually lived together as one. A long time living together is not enough on its own; the court looks at everything together, including whether you held a wedding, whether you introduced each other as spouses to both families and others, and whether you ran the household finances together.

Unlike a legal marriage, there is no divorce report procedure, so the relationship ends once one partner ends it. If there is a dispute, you claim property division and compensation for emotional distress arising from the end of the de facto marriage in the family court, and if needed also file a lawsuit to confirm that a de facto marital relationship existed.

If you broke up after the families met and a wedding date was set, it may be seen as an engagement. When an engagement is broken off, the way you dispute the return of wedding gifts and damages is different, so first decide how the relationship should be characterized.

Even if you did not register at the same address, it can be recognized if other material shows a shared life as a married couple.

• The wedding venue contract, wedding invitations, and photos and videos of the ceremony
• Resident registration records showing you moved in at the same address
• Photos of visiting both families on holidays, and messages exchanged with both families
• Conversations using terms couples use, such as 'honey', 'husband', 'wife' or 'mother-in-law'
• A joint account for living costs, and records of jointly paying a jeonse deposit or buying appliances and furniture

Case law applies the property division (재산분할) provisions by analogy to the end of a de facto marriage. Assets built while living together are divided according to contribution regardless of whose name they are in, and the claim must be made within 2 years of the day the relationship ended. Even for a home in your partner's name, if you contributed to the deposit or helped repay the loan, you can claim a share to that extent.

If the relationship broke down because of your partner's affair, verbal abuse or violence, you can claim compensation for emotional distress (위자료) for wrongfully ending the de facto marriage. This is a tort damages claim, so it must be made within 3 years of learning of the damage and the person responsible (Civil Act (민법) Article 766). You can also make a separate claim against the affair partner.

Property division covers assets formed or maintained together during the de facto marriage, and assets each partner had before that are in principle excluded. Even for a car bought in your partner's name, if you made the installment payments, those transfer records show your contribution.

If your partner cut off contact unilaterally and moved their belongings out, that day may be argued to be the day the relationship ended. Keep a record of your last conversation and the date the belongings were moved out.

A de facto spouse has no right to inherit. Case law does not allow a property division claim when the de facto marriage ended because the partner died. If you intend to end the relationship, settle the property issues while your partner is alive.

If you have a child, first check whether the father has acknowledged the child (인지). If not, also file a claim for acknowledgment, and set the person with parental authority, the custodial parent and child support by the same standards as in a legal marriage. Since you are not married, there is no divorce-by-agreement procedure, so if you cannot agree, you petition the family court for a ruling.

If you lived together while your partner had a separate legal spouse, it is in principle hard to be protected as a de facto marriage. If this applies, first check the scope of what you can claim.

Child support for a child born during a de facto marriage is set using the same Child Support Guidelines, and if it is not paid once set, the same procedures, such as performance orders and direct payment orders, can be used.

If you settle without a lawsuit, put in writing who takes what, how much will be paid and when, and how any deposit will be divided. Ending a de facto marriage has no court confirmation procedure, so the agreement is the only record that remains. If money is to be received later, making it into a notarized deed (공정증서) with a clause consenting to compulsory execution allows enforcement without another lawsuit.

If your partner seems likely to deny that there was a de facto marriage at all, we group the material by period before filing the complaint so that it shows when the relationship began and how it continued.

At Jisan Law, we first check whether there is enough material to show a de facto marriage, organize the records of your contributions to the assets, and set the scope of the claim. The deadlines depend on when the relationship ended, so write down the date you separated and message us through the chat on this page to arrange a consultation.