The person applying for dissolution will need to satisfy the court of one of the following facts:
- unreasonable behaviour (will include infidelity);
- two years' separation by consent;
- five years apart, no consent required (grave financial hardship still applies); or
- desertion for two years immediately preceding making the application.
NB: no reference is made to the missing equivalent in a marriage, namely adultery, because the law tends to assume that a male partner leaving a male partner in a civil partnership is not likely to form a heterosexual relationship. However, by definition, he could but it would not constitute adultery, merely infidelity, which brings it under unreasonable behaviour.
A civil partnership will be void if:
- the parties to the civil partnership were not eligible to register as civil partners;
- there was a procedural irregularity that both parties were aware of at the time of registration – for example, failure to give notice, the civil partnership document has not been duly issued, the venue is not specified in the notice to propose civil partnership or the registrar was not present.
A civil partnership will be voidable if:
- either party did not validly consent to its formation;
- at the time of formation of the civil partnership one of the parties was suffering from a mental disorder;
- at the time of formation of the civil partnership one party was pregnant by another party other than the party of the partnership;
- at the time of the formation an interim gender recognition certificate had been issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004; or
- if one of the parties is a person whose gender at the time of the formation of the civil partnership had become the acquired gender under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, ie, change of gender by definition invalidates the civil partnership.