Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2015 | Page 149

LEGAL Roach Pittis advice By Janet Bell Roach Pittis Solicitors, 60 - 66 Lugley Street, Newport, PO30 5EU 01983 524431 [email protected] No such thing as ‘Common law spouse’ S ix out of every ten couples who live together believe that they have the same protection as married couples if they split up. They don’t. The myth of common law marriage and the fact that many official bodies refer to people living together as ‘husband or wife’, means that many people who live together are not aware that they have no rights when their relationships end. In July 2015 the Office for National Statistics released figures that in 2014 around one in eight adults in England and Wales were living as a couple but were not married or in a civil partnership; cohabiting is most common in the 30 34 age group. Often people separating from their live-in partners want a fair share of the assets, but discover that they have no rights whatsoever. Even if one partner has given up work to care for children, or has contributed by supporting their partner in their career by running the home, often their contributions will not be recognised in law, especially if the children have already grown up and left home. They discover that the belief that unmarried couples have rights as ‘common law’ spouses, is not correct. The Family Lawyers Association Resolution is campaigning for the introduct