How is a Common Law Marriage regulated in Costa Rica?
In Costa Rica, what many people call a “common law marriage” is legally known as a unión de hecho, sometimes translated as a domestic partnership or de facto union. It refers to a stable couple who live together as a family without having gone through a formal marriage ceremony.
This type of relationship is not symbolic or informal in legal terms. When it meets the requirements established by Costa Rican law, it can produce the same economic and patrimonial effects as a formal marriage. This means that issues such as property rights, inheritance, and even possible spousal support can come into play. However, these effects do not arise automatically. In most cases, the relationship must first be formally recognized by a judge.
Many foreigners and even Costa Rican nationals are unaware of how strong the legal consequences of a common law marriage in Costa Rica can be. People often assume that living together is a private matter with no legal impact. In reality, the law may treat that relationship as a real marriage once certain conditions are met.
How is a Common Law Marriage regulated in Costa Rica?
A common law marriage in Costa Rica is not created by signing a document or registering at a government office. It is created by facts. It exists when two people live together as a real couple and build a shared life under the same roof, in a way that is stable, public, and exclusive.
The law does not protect casual relationships, dating, or relationships where each person keeps a separate and independent life. What the courts look for is a true life project in common. In other words, a relationship that, from the outside, looks and functions like a marriage, even if no formal wedding ever took place.
This is why many legal disputes arise years later, when one of the partners claims rights over property, assets, or inheritance, and the other insists that they were “never married.” In Costa Rican law, the absence of a marriage certificate does not necessarily mean that no marital-type relationship existed.
Legal Basis for Common Law Partnerships in Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, what is commonly referred to in English as “common law marriage” does not exist as a marriage in the formal sense. Costa Rican law does not recognize informal marriages. However, the law does recognize something very close to it: the unión de hecho, or de facto union.
This legal figure exists to protect couples who live together as a family without having gone through a formal marriage ceremony. When certain legal conditions are met, this type of relationship can produce the same patrimonial and family law effects as a legally registered marriage.
The regulation of this institution is found in the Costa Rican Family Code, specifically in Article 245. Under this rule, a stable couple who has lived together for more than two years, in a public, exclusive, and continuous relationship, and who had legal capacity to marry each other during that time, may obtain judicial recognition of their relationship.
It is important to understand that these legal effects do not arise automatically. Unlike marriage, a de facto union must be declared by a Family Court through a judicial process. Only after that declaration does the relationship produce its full legal consequences, especially in matters of property, inheritance, and spousal support.
This means that, in practice, what many people call “common law marriage in Costa Rica” is actually a court-recognized unión de hecho, and its legal existence depends entirely on meeting the statutory requirements and proving them in court.
What is an Unión de Hecho under Costa Rican Law?
An unión de hecho is the legal figure used in Costa Rica to regulate long-term couples who live together as a family without being formally married. It is not a type of marriage, and it does not exist automatically just because two people live together. It is a legal status that must be recognized by a judge.
Under Costa Rican law, a unión de hecho is defined as a stable, public, exclusive, and continuous relationship between two people who had legal capacity to marry each other and who lived together for the minimum period required by law. Today, that minimum period is two years.
The purpose of this legal institution is to prevent situations of injustice when a long-term relationship ends or when one of the partners dies. Without this mechanism, one partner could walk away with everything, even after many years of shared life and economic effort.
Once a unión de hecho is judicially recognized, it produces essentially the same patrimonial effects as a marriage. This means that assets acquired during the relationship may become subject to division, and rights such as inheritance or spousal support may also arise.
However, until a court declares its existence, the relationship has no automatic legal effects. This is one of the most common and dangerous misunderstandings among couples who assume that simply living together gives them the same rights as married spouses.
What requirements must be met to recognize an Unión de Hecho in Costa Rica?
Costa Rican law does not recognize every cohabiting relationship as a unión de hecho. In order for a court to declare its existence, several legal conditions must be proven.
First, the relationship must have been public. This means it was not secret or hidden, but known to family, friends, and the social environment of the couple. Second, it must have been exclusive, meaning neither partner maintained another parallel marital or de facto relationship. Third, it must have been stable and continuous, not an occasional or intermittent arrangement.
In addition, both partners must have had legal capacity to marry each other during the entire period of coexistence. If one of them was legally married to someone else during that time, the relationship cannot qualify as a unión de hecho under Costa Rican law.
Finally, the couple must have lived together for the minimum period established by law, which is currently two years.
All of these elements must be proven in court. The judge does not presume them. The burden of proof lies entirely on the person requesting recognition, which is why proper legal preparation and evidence are essential.
Does living together create the Union de Hecho automatically?
One of the most common misconceptions is that simply living together for a certain number of years automatically creates a legal unión de hecho. This is not how Costa Rican law works.
No matter how long a couple has lived together, the relationship has no legal effects until a Family Court formally recognizes it. There is no registry, no automatic status, and no administrative shortcut. Only a judicial declaration gives the relationship legal existence.
This means that if the couple separates or one partner dies without having obtained recognition, the surviving or weaker partner may be left without any legal protection, even after many years of shared life.
In practice, many people discover this problem too late, when they try to claim property rights, inheritance, or economic compensation and realize that, legally speaking, the relationship never existed.
For this reason, legal advice is especially important in long-term relationships where significant assets are being acquired or where one partner is economically dependent on the other.
What legal effects does the civil partnership create once it is recognized?
Once a court declares the existence of a unión de hecho, the relationship produces essentially the same patrimonial effects as a legally registered marriage.
This means that assets acquired during the relationship may become subject to the rules of marital property and may have to be divided if the relationship ends. It also means that rights such as inheritance and, in certain cases, spousal support may arise.
However, these effects are not retroactive in the same way people often imagine. The specific scope of the economic consequences depends on the facts of each case, the timing of asset acquisition, and how the claim is structured in court.
It is also important to understand that recognition of the unión de hecho does not convert the relationship into a marriage. It simply applies certain family law consequences in order to prevent unjust enrichment or abuse.
Because of this, these cases are usually complex and highly fact-dependent, especially when there are companies, real estate, or significant investments involved.
How is the civil partnership recognized in court?
In Costa Rica, a unión de hecho does not exist legally until a Family Court declares it. There is no registry, no administrative procedure, and no automatic recognition. The only way to obtain legal recognition is by filing a lawsuit before a Family Court and proving that the legal requirements were met.
This process is handled as a family law case. The person requesting recognition must clearly state the period of cohabitation, identify the other partner, and explain the facts that demonstrate that the relationship was public, stable, exclusive, and continuous, and that both parties had legal capacity to marry during that time.
The judge does not presume the existence of the relationship. The court will analyze the evidence and, if convinced that the legal conditions are met, will issue a judgment declaring the existence of the unión de hecho. Only from that moment does the relationship acquire legal relevance and produce its full patrimonial effects. The union is recognized with retroactive effects, to the date it began.
This judicial declaration is especially important in cases involving real estate, companies, inheritance disputes, or when the relationship has already ended.
Evidence and Burden of Proof
In cases involving the recognition of a unión de hecho, the burden of proof lies entirely on the person who requests the declaration. The court will not assume that the relationship existed simply because the parties lived together or had children. Every legal element must be proven with sufficient and convincing evidence.
In practice, these cases are built mainly through witness testimony, documents, and circumstantial evidence that shows that the couple actually lived together as a real family. The judge will evaluate whether the relationship was public, stable, exclusive, and continuous, and whether both parties had legal capacity to marry during the entire period claimed.
This is often the most difficult part of the case, especially when the relationship has already ended or when one of the partners denies its existence. Poorly prepared cases frequently fail, not because the relationship did not exist, but because it could not be properly proven in court.
For this reason, these proceedings should never be treated as a formality. They require careful legal preparation and a coherent evidentiary strategy.
Time limits and the statute of limitations
Costa Rican law does not allow the recognition of a unión de hecho to be requested indefinitely. The Family Code establishes a strict statute of limitations for filing this type of claim.
As a general rule, the action must be filed within two years from the moment the relationship ends or from the death of one of the partners. If that period expires, the right to request judicial recognition is lost forever, no matter how long or how real the relationship may have been.
This time limit is extremely important and is one of the most common reasons why otherwise valid cases are rejected in court. Many people wait too long, either because they do not know their rights or because they believe the issue can be addressed later.
Once the statute of limitations has expired, the court cannot recognize the relationship, and all potential patrimonial rights derived from it are definitively lost.
What happens if one parter dies?
When one partner in an unión de hecho dies, the legal situation can become extremely complex if the relationship was never judicially recognized during life. In Costa Rica, the surviving partner does not automatically have the status of spouse. Everything depends on whether the unión de hecho is declared by a court.
If the relationship is recognized, the surviving partner may acquire inheritance rights similar to those of a legal spouse, as well as possible rights over assets acquired during the relationship. However, this recognition must still be requested judicially, directly against the Estate, through the Succession Civil Process. It must respect the statute of limitations established by law.
If the claim is not filed on time, or if the evidence is insufficient, the surviving partner may be left without any inheritance rights, even after many years of shared life. In practice, these disputes often arise in conflicts with children, other heirs, or family members of the deceased.
This is why, in relationships involving significant assets or complex family situations, waiting until after death to address the legal situation is usually a serious strategic mistake.
Common law marriage, corporations and assets held by third parties:
One of the most frequent sources of litigation in unión de hecho cases arises when assets are not registered in the name of one of the partners, but in the name of a corporation or a third party. This is especially common in Costa Rica in cases involving real estate, family companies, or investment structures.
The simple fact that a person is a shareholder, director, or legal representative of a company does not automatically mean that the company’s assets belong to that person personally, nor that they are subject to division as part of a unión de hecho.
In order to affect assets held by a company or a third party, it is necessary to prove something more: that the legal structure was used abusively, fraudulently, or as a simulation to hide personal assets. This is what Costa Rican law and jurisprudence refer to as lifting or piercing the corporate veil.
These cases are legally complex and highly fact-dependent. They require specific pleading, strong evidence, and a separate legal analysis beyond the mere recognition of the unión de hecho itself.
Spousal support during an ongoing common law relationship:
When a common law relationship is still ongoing in Costa Rica, the law allows one partner to request spousal support directly before the Pensión Alimentaria Courts. Since the enactment of Law No. 10228, it is no longer necessary to file a separate lawsuit to first obtain a formal judicial recognition of the relationship. The existence of the unión de hecho may be examined directly within the support proceeding itself.
This rule exists to avoid situations in which a financially dependent partner is forced to go through two different lawsuits before receiving any protection. The court may analyze, as part of the same case, whether the relationship meets the legal requirements of a common law marriage.
It is important to understand that this mechanism applies only when the relationship is still in force. In these cases, the claim is based on the duty of mutual support that exists within an ongoing family relationship.
As in any support proceeding, the court will analyze the financial situation of both parties, their needs, and their real economic capacity. The purpose of the process is not to punish either party, but to ensure a fair and proportional level of support while the relationship continues.
Spousal support AFTER a common law union ends:
When a common law relationship has already ended, the legal situation is completely different.
In these cases, spousal support is not automatic and does not arise directly from the law. The interested party must go before a Family Court and request two things in the same lawsuit: the judicial recognition of the unión de hecho and the judicial creation of the right to receive support.
The judge will analyze whether, during the relationship, one partner became economically dependent on the other and whether the breakup occurred through an unjustified unilateral act. Only if these elements are proven may the court create a support obligation.
In this type of case, the source of the obligation is the court judgment itself, not the mere existence of the past relationship.
In some situations, and depending on the specific circumstances, the court may examine provisional measures while the case is pending. However, this does not mean that a permanent right to support will necessarily be granted in the final decision.
Legal representation for common law marriages in Costa Rica:
Cases involving unión de hecho, property rights, inheritance, or long-term relationships without formal marriage are often legally and emotionally complex. A mistake in timing, evidence, or strategy can permanently destroy a legitimate claim.
At CPG Legal, we regularly represent both Costa Rican and foreign clients in family litigation involving recognition of de facto unions, asset disputes, inheritance conflicts, and complex property structures, including cases with corporations or third-party ownership.
We serve clients throughout Costa Rica, including San José, Escazú, Santa Ana, Liberia, Tamarindo, Jacó, Nosara, and other regions.
If you are facing a dispute related to a long-term relationship, or if you need to protect your rights before a separation, death, or asset conflict occurs, proper legal advice at the right time is critical.
Dr. Christopher Pirie Gil.
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