You can stipulate anything in the separation agreement that you wish. It does not necessarily mean that the agreement will be signed with that stipulation. Most have the stipulation of no overnight guests of the opposite sex while the children are present but that does not stop people from doing it. If there are no children involved then there is not a lot you can do unless you want to sue for Alienation of Affection or criminal conversation…
There is nothing illegal about dating while separated so I doubt that you will get that to hold up. Cohabitating and overnight guests if children involved is a different story. That does not mean that this does not happen…all you can do is live so that the children have a role model and hope that your stbx would do the same.
You are free to agree to whatever you wish in a Separation Agreement as long as it does not violate the law.
Helena M. Nevicosi
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My question is does co-hapitation=sexual relations?
One thing that Helena says is that you can agree to do anything so long as it does not violate the law. Having sexual relations (with a person other than your spouse) while married violates the law in NC.
So, if a spouse moves out and starts living with another person, regardless if they have a separation agreement or not; is that proof of adultery?
I believe what Helena meant was that you could not put something in the agreement that would be illegal. As in you could not put into an agreement something like: Spouse A agrees to drive child/children to the home of spouse B knowing that spouse A does not have a driver’s license and can not get one. Or that spouse A will pay x amount monthly to spouse B to keep the insurance company from knowing about fraud that is being commited by spouse A.
Adultery is already illegal so there’s no reason to have that in an agreement. I think cohabitation is defined as living with someone in all aspects living as though you were married. Adultery, while illegal, is a misdemeanor and is rarely prosecuted. It can affect the alimony amount but has little affect if any other parts of the separation or divorce.
My previous post was to let HoldingON know that sadly, though you can have this stuff put into an agreement, it does not mean that that part of the agreement is upheld. Most will get a stipulation in the agreement to protect the children from a “string of boyfriends/girlfriends” in the other parent’s life, but normally only one parent will stick to this part of the agreement while the other parent just tries not to get caught or tries to justify it.