173.— (1) A qualified cohabitant may, subject to any agreement under section 202, apply to the court, on notice to the other cohabitant, for an order under sections 174, 175 and 187 or any of them.

(2) If the qualified cohabitant satisfies the court that he or she is financially dependent on the other cohabitant and that the financial dependence arises from the relationship or the ending of the relationship, the court may, if satisfied that it is just and equitable to do so in all the circumstances, make the order concerned.

(3) In determining whether or not it is just and equitable to make an order in all the circumstances, the court shall have regard to—

(a) the financial circumstances, needs and obligations of each qualified cohabitant existing as at the date of the application or which are likely to arise in the future,

(b) subject to subsection (5), the rights and entitlements of any spouse or former spouse,

(c) the rights and entitlements of any civil partner or former civil partner,

(d) the rights and entitlements of any dependent child or of any child of a previous relationship of either cohabitant,

(e) the duration of the parties’ relationship, the basis on which the parties entered into the relationship and the degree of commitment of the parties to one another,

(f) the contributions that each of the cohabitants made or is likely to make in the foreseeable future to the welfare of the cohabitants or either of them including any contribution made by each of them to the income, earning capacity or property and financial resources of the other,

(g) any contributions made by either of them in looking after the home,

(h) the effect on the earning capacity of each of the cohabitants of the responsibilities assumed by each of them during the period they lived together as a couple and the degree to which the future earning capacity of a qualified cohabitant is impaired by reason of that qualified cohabitant having relinquished or foregone the opportunity of remunerative activity in order to look after the home,

(i) any physical or mental disability of the qualified cohabitant, and

(j) the conduct of each of the cohabitants, if the conduct is such that, in the opinion of the court, it would be unjust to disregard it.

(4) The court may order that notice be given to any other person that it specifies and may hear the other person on the terms and in respect of the matters it thinks fit in the interests of justice before making an order referred to in this section.

(5) The court shall not make an order referred to in this section in favour of a qualified cohabitant that would affect any right of any person to whom the other cohabitant is or was married.

(6) The court may, on the application of the qualified cohabitant or the other cohabitant, if it considers it proper to do so having regard to any change in the circumstances of the case and to any new evidence, including any change in the circumstances occasioned by a variation by another order of the court made in favour of a person to whom the other cohabitant is or was married, by order—

(a) vary or discharge an order under section 175 or 187 ,

(b) suspend any provision of such an order,

(c) suspend temporarily any provision of such an order,

(d) revive the operation of a suspended provision,

(e) further vary an order previously varied under this section, or

(f) further suspend or revive the operation of a provision previously suspended or revived under this section.

(7) Where the court makes an order under section 174, 175 (1)(c) or 187 in favour of a qualified cohabitant, the court may, in the same proceedings or at any later date, on the application of either of the qualified cohabitants concerned, order that either or both of them shall not, on the death of the other, be entitled to apply for an order under section 194.

(8) If the order under section 174, 175(1)(c) or 187 referred to in subsection (7) has been made but not yet executed at the time that the order is made under subsection (7), the order under subsection (7) shall not take effect until the execution of that other order.