Romantic relationship in Malta

Dating and courtship in Malta mainly take place without a state procedure, fixed registration, standard access requirements or official costs and deadlines. Partners may remain in an informal relationship or choose a formal status when they share a home, want defined rights and duties, or need a recognized framework for care, property and family responsibilities. Marriage is available from age 18 when both partners can understand the nature of marriage. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Malta since 1 September 2017. Couples who live abroad do not have an official residency requirement, but Identità advises contacting the service about four months before the ceremony. RZ1 marriage banns are submitted between three months and six weeks before the ceremony. RZ2 records an oath or solemn affirmation before a Commissioner for Oaths, and three documents are collected ten days before the ceremony. Civil ceremony fees range from €25.65 for the Registry and two Malta-resident spouses to €102.60 for an external venue with two spouses living abroad. Civil unions are governed by the Civil Unions Act, Cap. 530. Their rights and duties are equivalent to marriage, and marriage equality removed a separate legal distinction based on the partners' sex. The current procedure is case-specific and should be confirmed with Identità. Registered cohabitation is a formal alternative for two adults aged 18 or over. Both partners must be single, share a common address, and not already be married, in a civil union, in another cohabitation arrangement or covered by an equivalent foreign status. Prohibited biological or adoptive relationships also exclude registration. The partners use a Notary Public, a Free Status Certificate and identification documents to create a public deed, choose the community-of-assets arrangement where applicable and enrol the deed with the Public Registry. The resulting Cohabitation Certificate records the status. Identità states a maximum of 20 working days after enrolment, while Servizz describes 10 working days for assessment and 9 for approval. The notary fee varies because Malta has no official flat rate for this service. Registered cohabitation can provide habitation protection, co-tenant status, labour and family leave, medical-care decision rights and access to selected social benefits. In a defined case, a surviving partner can retain a habitation right for one year. Partners share family responsibilities and owe each other moral and material support; duties concerning a child include maintenance, education and care. A partner does not automatically adopt the other partner's surname. Marriage ends registered cohabitation automatically. The arrangement can end through a mutual public deed authorised by the Family Court or through a court application when the partners cannot agree. Sexual Health Malta describes trust, respect, open communication, support, compromise, companionship, self-expression and listening as signs of a healthy relationship. Consent means freely agreeing to an act and can be withdrawn; intimacy is optional. Counselling, including couples counselling, is provided by warranted practitioners under the regulation of the counselling profession by CCP Malta. Malta has no direct state couple-mediation standard for separation or divorce, and the civil mediation service excludes those proceedings. Malta Police domestic-violence protection covers current and former spouses, civil-union partners, cohabitants, people in informal dating relationships and people who are formally or informally engaged. Call 112 in an emergency. GBDVU Hubs operate 24 hours a day in locations including Santa Lucia, Mtarfa and Gozo, while Supportline 179 provides free 24-hour information and referrals. Appoġġ's 2025 SPL179 records listed 4 calls about communication issues in romantic relationships, 9 about infidelity, 332 about emotional domestic violence and 203 about physical domestic violence; these figures are call records, not prevalence estimates. An informal breakup has no state procedure, although counselling and safety referrals remain available. Ending registered cohabitation requires its public-deed or court pathway. For marriage, legal separation does not itself dissolve the marriage; remarriage requires divorce, annulment or the death of a spouse. The Family Court handles separation and divorce, and the civil mediation service does not replace those proceedings.