Mr Braun and Mr Sanchez met online in 1998. They spent weekends together, went on holidays, celebrated Christmases as a pair, and moved in the same social circles for a quarter of a century. By most everyday measures, they looked like a couple.
But when one man went to court claiming almost half of an $8 million pool, an Australian judge delivered the verdict that after 25 years, there had never been a de facto relationship at all.
This case raises important questions for anyone in a relationship that exists outside the traditional bounds of marriage: what does it take for the law to recognise you as a couple?
The Relationship
Mr Braun arrived in Australia from overseas in 1997 as an 18-year-old student. In 1998, he met Mr Sanchez — who was 47 at the time, a Sydney business owner and property investor. By their own accounts, things moved quickly and Sanchez gave Braun a key to his home within months.
For the next 25 years, Braun spent around 4–6 nights a week at Sanchez's Sydney property. They attended social events together, went on holidays, had every Christmas together, and attended an annual LGBTQIA+ costume ball in regional New South Wales.
By any understanding, this appears to be a relationship. The court did not suggest that no relationship existed — but rather questioned the nature of the relationship.
The De Facto Legal Threshold
Under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), a de facto relationship exists where two people — not married to each other and not related — have a relationship as a couple living together on a genuine domestic basis. If established, the Court can intervene to divide property, just as it can for married couples.
The threshold matters enormously because it determines jurisdiction. If Braun could prove a de facto relationship lasting at least two years, the Court could consider adjusting the parties' property interests. If not, it had no power to act — and Sanchez's $6.85 million Sydney property, which he had owned since 1992, would remain entirely his.
Braun claimed the de facto relationship began in 1998 and lasted until October 2023. Sanchez denied it ever existed, describing 25 years of close personal friendship — but not a merger of two lives.
What the Court Considers
The Act sets out a list of factors relevant to whether a de facto relationship exists:
- The duration of the relationship
- The nature of any common residence
- Whether there was a sexual relationship
- Financial interdependence
- Shared property
- Mutual commitment to a shared life
- The public aspects of the relationship
Crucially, no single factor is decisive. A couple can live apart and still be de facto. A couple can sleep together regularly and not be de facto. The law is deliberately flexible, because relationships are complicated. What it is looking for overall is a merging of lives.
Where Braun's Case Unravelled
Braun's case was undermined not by what he said, but by what he had consistently failed to do across 25 years of official paperwork. At no point in the entire relationship did Braun ever give Sanchez's address as his own:
- 2002 immigration visa application — student accommodation
- 2010 citizenship form — brother's rental
- All tax returns — own property
- Driver's licence renewals — own property
- Superannuation statements — own property
- 2020 Working with Children Check — brother's property
More damaging still: in his 2002 visa application, when asked his relationship status, he ticked "never married." The form explicitly included "de facto relationship" as an option. He did not tick it — despite claiming he had already been in a de facto relationship for four years.
Braun offered an explanation: in the early years he was concealing his sexuality and needed to maintain a separate address. The judge accepted this was plausible for some early omissions. But by 2020, when he completed the Working with Children Check, Braun acknowledged his friends and family knew he was gay. There was no reason left not to select de facto. He still listed his brother's property.
Shared Property and Finances
Sanchez's Sydney property had been his alone since 1992. He managed the tenants, the finances, and the property entirely on his own terms. Braun, meanwhile, maintained his own separate household throughout — living in student accommodation until 2002, then a rental with his brother, and in 2009 co-purchasing a property with his brother that became his primary residence.
Critically, Braun made this purchase without even telling Sanchez. The judge accepted Sanchez's evidence that he only learned of the purchase after it had already occurred.
The parties also kept their finances almost entirely separate. There were no joint bank accounts, no jointly owned property, and no shared financial planning. From 2005, when Braun secured full-time employment, they even reimbursed each other for small amounts like movie tickets.
The Verdict
Harper J held that the parties had never been in a relationship as a couple living together on a genuine domestic basis. The sexual relationship was long-standing and largely exclusive, the social connection was genuine and warm, and the duration was impressive — but none of this, individually or cumulatively, crossed the legal threshold.
The declaration was made: no de facto relationship had ever existed. Braun's application was dismissed. Sanchez keeps his property.
What This Means for You
This case is a reminder that the law does not automatically recognise long relationships as de facto. What matters is the totality of the circumstances — and particularly whether the parties' lives were genuinely merged in the way that characterises a shared domestic life.
If you are in a long-term relationship and want legal protection, there are practical steps worth taking. Seek legal advice if you are unsure whether your relationship would meet the legal threshold, or if you want to understand your rights before a dispute arises.