Property regimes for cohabitees: The Civil Partnership Bill and some Antipodean Models

This article examines issues relating to the distribution of, and the rights of cohabitees to, property at the end of cohabitation. In particular, the article considers the implications of the Civil Partnership Bill and seeks to argue that more radical reform is needed to deal with property matters that arise in cohabiting relationships, whether heterosexual or same-sex. The token gesture of creating a new civil status for same-sex cohabitation fails to resolve these more substantive issues at the end of cohabitation. In that respect, the article examines whether reform for relationship recognition should be premised on a registration or a presumptive regime. It also includes a comparative study of the approaches adopted in some Australian property distribution regimes, which provides useful insights on the way in which a broader approach may be taken in resolving property disputes in a wider range of domestic relationships.