There is a lot of misinformation and misconception regarding the effects of cohabitation on alimony. Many divorced men and women want to know if they will still be receiving or paying spousal support if their ex remarries or moves into a new relationship.
While wives are asking if they can still get alimony if they move in and start living with a new boyfriend, the husbands are also asking if they can cut off alimony if their ex starts living with another man?
To fully understand the effects, you have to know what it means to cohabitate (living together) with a new partner or outright remarriage. Also, you have to understand the statutes of different state alimony laws.
What Defines Living Together?
Living together or cohabitation refers to sharing a residence that serves as a primary place of abode for the concerned partners, and it has a significant effect on alimony payment.
The legal right to occupy the facility does not have to be in the names of both living-together partners. Even if one or both of them have other locations to reside, two individuals can live together.
In the eye of the law, couples living together are assumed to continue to live together even if one of them leaves the shared house with the intention of returning.
What Is Cohabitation in Alimony?
The legal definition of cohabitation differs by state. Cohabitation is defined as two persons living in the same house in a marriage-like relationship, sharing expenses, but not legally married.
a romantic or sexually intimate relationship is deemed cohabitation
The effects of cohabitation on alimony will also be determined if the cohabiting persons are frequently involved in a long-term or permanent romantic or sexually intimate relationship.
Effects of Living Together on Alimony
When one or both divorced spouses starts living together with another partner, there may be consequences. But the consequences will be hinged on the status of their living together.
With regards to alimony payment, the party alleging cohabitation has to prove it before a court. With regards to continuous spousal support payment, here are outlines of the effects of living together:
How Remarriage Affects Alimony
In most states, unless there is a formal agreement or a court decision to the contrary, alimony is always discontinued when the recipient spouse remarries. However, judges have the prerogative to prolong alimony payments even if the recipient spouse remarries.
The marital status of the paying spouse usually has little bearing on alimony, even if it involves maintaining additional children. This means the process is tilted towards the recipient spouse’s marital status.
If your finalized divorce order leaves it unclear what must happen if the recipient spouse remarries, then you’ll have to rely on state statutes to determine the effects of cohabitation on alimony.
After learning that your spouse has remarried verify your alimony agreement and the last court ruling, as well as your state’s laws, prior to approaching the court to modify or discontinue alimony.
How Cohabitation Affects Alimony
Here are ways How Cohabitation Affects Alimony
It is more complicated when the recipient spouse is cohabiting with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Even though they now split the rent, electricity, groceries, and other expenditures, it may be a basis to reduce the alimony order.
Because you are cohabiting with someone after your divorce, the court will just not terminate your spousal support payments. If a casual affair blossom into something more serious, the court will consider a number of issues before deciding whether or not alimony payments should be stopped.
To understand the effects of cohabitation, here are some of the questions you need to answer about what happens when a supported spouse cohabitates with someone new:
- How long have you been together?
- Have you revealed your romantic relationship to your friends and family?
- Do both of you contribute to the cost of living?
- Do you and your new partner have any joint assets?
- Do both spend vacation and holiday together?
- Do you live in the same house?
It’s critical to consider the last question. Although the court will assess whether or not a couple is living together, it can rule that they are cohabiting even if they do not live in the same house.
After you answer these questions, the court may conclude that you and your new lover are cohabiting and in a relationship that is akin to marriage. The judge has the right to stop your spousal support payments in this circumstance.
Proving Cohabitation to Stop Alimony
If you must seek to approach a court to stop or alter alimony payment or the effects of cohabitation on alimony, the onus is on you to prove the above questions to the judge.
A modification of alimony is only approved in some states if there is proof of a continuing and significant change in circumstances that renders the alimony judgment unreasonable.
For the court to acknowledge that this is a persisting change, you’ll definitely have to prove that they’ve been cohabiting for a long time and/or show other evidence.
Can I Get Alimony if I Live With my Boyfriend?
Women ask if they can Get Alimony if they Live With their Boyfriend
The answer will be determined by the terms of your divorce order. If your ex-husband’s obligation stops when you move in with a partner in a meretricious affair (a marriage-like arrangement), then his responsibility ceased when you cohabit with your boyfriend.
On the other hand, your ex-husband is still obligated to pay alimony, even if you lived with your boyfriend. A contempt action can be used to enforce his court-ordered commitment.
This is so when your settlement final order of divorce only states that alimony obligations end upon death or remarriage (and he did not file a modification action and receive an order modifying his obligation.)
Conclusion
To determine the effects of cohabitation on alimony, it makes no difference if the living condition was brief.
Your ex-husband’s obligation is instantly terminated if you moved in with your lover, no matter how briefly. Because your court order specifically addresses this situation, no court order is required for him to stop paying.
