Short answer. The Family Code obliges spouses to live together, but that duty is not enforced by physically compelling anyone. It is a legal obligation whose breach carries consequences — in support, in property, and as a possible ground for other family actions — rather than one a court makes good by force.

What the law says

The husband and wife are obliged to live together, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity, and render mutual help and support.

Family Code, Article 68 — Mutual Obligations of Spouses. Read the full provision →

The duty is real, and it is stated in the Code

Article 68 of the Family Code is unambiguous about the obligation itself: The husband and wife are obliged to live together, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity, and render mutual help and support. Cohabitation sits in the same sentence as fidelity and mutual support, which tells you how the law classifies it — as one of the core marital obligations, not as an optional arrangement the spouses negotiate. So the honest answer to "am I obliged to live with my spouse" is yes, as a matter of legal duty.

But an obligation is not the same as a power to compel

The obligations in Article 68 are personal ones, and the remedy for breaching them is not physical compulsion. Consortium is not the kind of duty a court enforces by seizing a person, and no provision of the Code authorises anyone to return an unwilling spouse to the family home. What non-compliance produces instead are legal consequences: it bears on claims for support, it can matter when a property regime is being liquidated, and abandonment without justifiable cause for more than one year is itself one of the grounds for legal separation listed in the Code.

The Code itself contemplates spouses living apart

The structure of the law recognises that living together is not always possible or safe. A court may exempt a spouse from living with the other where that spouse lives abroad or where there are other valid and compelling reasons, and a decree of legal separation entitles the spouses to live separately outright. Where the reason for leaving is violence or abuse, separate protective legislation applies and the question stops being one of marital obligation at all. If you are living apart, or about to, the useful step is to record why — the reason is what everything else will be measured against.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.