A divorce ends a valid marriage and an annulment is a declaration that your marriage was invalid. If a marriage is annulled, it essentially means that it never happened.

There is a common misconception that a marriage is voidable simply if it is not consummated, but the law is not that simple. In order to obtain annulment of a marriage on the grounds of failure to consummate, it is not sufficient for the parties to simply establish that they have not had sexual intercourse since the marriage. The party requesting an annulment must establish that one or both of the parties is incapable of engaging in sexual intercourse due to a physical or psychological incapacity.

Even if both parties agree that they would like to have an order annulling the marriage, the order will not be granted unless relevant grounds for annulment have been proven.

Annulments are uncommon because there are very limited and rare circumstances that would warrant an annulment. For example: if one of the spouses was still married to someone else when the marriage occurred; if someone was forced to marry under duress; or if someone accidentally married the wrong person.

An annulled marriage doesn’t terminate the parties’ rights and obligations if they have lived together for two or more years or have a child together. In that case, the parties can still seek orders pursuant to the Family Law Act as common law spouses.