Consequences of an annulment of a civil partnership

Rules

The most obvious consequence of a court declaration of nullity is that you are now entitled to marry or enter into a civil partnership.

If you have already married or entered into a new civil partnership, i.e. you have married or entered into a civil partnership before an order of annulment was actually made by the court, your marriage or new civil partnership may have appeared invalid. However, once the annulment order is granted, your marriage/civil partnereship is validated , as your first civil partnership has now been declared invalid.

If your civil partnership is annulled, it also means that you lose the rights that you enjoyed as a civil partner. Therefore:

• The home that you shared with your former partner is not a shared home . If your former partner is the legal owner of the house, he or she can sell or lease it without your consent.
• Under the Succession Act 1965, when a civil partner dies, the surviving civil partner is legally entitled to a share of his/her estate whether or not he or she has left a will . As your civil partnership never happened, you do not have any succession rights if your former partner dies.
• Once your civil partnership has been annulled, you do not have a right to apply to the court to order your former partner to pay maintenance to support you, as only civil partners may apply to a court for an order for maintenance.