RDRM22220 | Domicile: Categories of domicile: Domicile of dependence - Children whose parents live apart - England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Section 4 of the DMPA 1973 applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland only.

This legislation preserves and extends the circumstances in which the domicile of a legitimate or legitimated child (refer to RDRM22210) will depend on that of its mother. In order for the legislation to apply the child’s parents have to be living apart.

Where a child has a home with its mother and no home with its father, the child’s domicile is dependent on and follows that of its mother.

This also applies where the child has ceased to have a home with its mother but has not since had a home with its father.

If a child’s mother dies and by reference to the criteria in the previous paragraph the child’s domicile would have depended on its mother’s domicile at the time of her death, the child retains the domicile that its mother had immediately prior to her death.

In any other case the child’s domicile follows that of its father.

The question of whether or not a child has a home with either or both of its parents is essentially one of fact.