The Myth of The
Common Law Marriage
The fastest-growing type of family in the UK is people who are living together
without being married. The number of people who cohabit has doubled to 5.9
million since 1996, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures
as at November 2012.
When people talk about living together they often refer to being a ‘common
law husband and wife’. This is a myth; there is no such thing as a ‘common law
husband and wife’. When a living-together relationship ends, ownership of any
assets is decided by property law rather than divided up by the courts as with
divorcing couples. If there are children then there may also be the possibility
of limited claims on behalf of the children while they are minors but it is still a
far cry from the potential spousal maintenance, property and pension sharing
claims available on the breakdown of a marriage.
The myth of the common law wife runs deep not helped by insurance and
other company websites still having an option for marital status as “common
law wife/husband”. Indeed some figures indicate that more than 50% of adults
in this country believe that cohabiting couples have the same rights or at least
some rights akin to marriage after a specified period together (although the
length of time people think necessary to acquire these fictitious rights also
varies wildly).
The law when trying to deal with property ownership disputes on the
breakdown of a relationship is complex with evidence often hampered by
strong emotional feelings. As a result any legal action can be protracted
and expensive. The advice therefore in such circumstances, is to enter into
a Cohabitation Agreement that regulates the ownership of property during
and at the end of a relationship in order to pre-empt any potential issues later
down the line.
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