Annulment of Marriage

The key difference between a divorce and an annulment is that a divorce ends a legally valid marriage, while an annulment declares a marriage to have been invalid from the start. Most marriages are legally valid, making divorce proceedings much more common than annulments. 

An annulment is only possible if the marriage was either void or voidable. In contrast, a divorce does not question the legal validity of the marriage but rather legally dissolves it.  

Unlike an annulment, which can be sought at any time after the wedding, you must be married for at least a year before you can apply for a divorce. 

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Can I get an annulment? 

To apply for an annulment, you need to complete a nullity petition. It’s important to understand that the grounds for annulment are limited and can be challenging to prove. 

An annulment may be granted on one of two grounds: either that the marriage is void, or that it is voidable.

A void marriage is one which was invalid ab initio and has therefore never, in fact, existed. Section 11 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 sets out the situations in which a marriage will be void, namely:

• That the marriage did not fulfill the requirements of the various Marriage Acts;
• A party was underage;
• The parties being too closely related;
• That one party was already married or in a civil partnership;
• That the marriage is not between a male and a female;
• That one party, where the marriage is polygamous, was domiciled in England and Wales at the time of the marriage.

In contrast to this, a voidable marriage is one which has technically existed, but can be held to be invalid. The declaration of invalidity takes effect from the date of the decree. S.12 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 sets out the grounds upon which a marriage may be voidable:

• Non-consummation (by either party’s incapacity, or by the respondent’s willful refusal);
• Lack of consent (including, but not limited to, duress, mistake or unsoundness of mind);
• That one party was unfit for marriage due to mental illness, even if they had capacity to consent to it;
• That the respondent was suffering from a communicable venereal disease, or was pregnant by a person other than the petitioner; or
• Where there are issues of gender recognition.

However, there are certain bars to making a nullity petition in relation to a voidable marriage. This means that you cannot seek annulment of a voidable marriage if, for example, you were aware that you could avoid the marriage, but your conduct led the other party reasonably to believe that you did not intend to do so.

As with a divorce, you can still apply for the full range of financial remedies under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 pursuant to a petition for nullity.

Can I get a divorce? 

After a year of marriage, you can file a divorce petition. Since the enactment of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 that came into force in April 2022, which removed the requirement for fault or blame in the divorce process, the petition only must state that there has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, and no proof is required.  

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