Living Together - An Essential Legal Guide

Many unmarried couples living together assume that they have the same legal rights as married couples, or civil partnerships, should one of them die or the couple split up. But if you think that couples living together have the same cohabiting rights as spouses, think again.

In the eyes of family law, the terms 'common law marriage' or a 'common law wife' or 'common law husband' don't exist. So although you may think that you don't need a marriage certificate to prove how much you're in love, you do need to consider your financial security as living together does pose big risks when you’re sharing assets, joining your income and setting up home together.

There is a myth that if you've been living together with your partner, unmarried, for over seven years, then under "common law" you have a legal right to half of your partners' property as their "common law wife" or "common law husband".

But this is untrue. No matter how long you’ve been living together and how many children you have had together, couples living together do not have automatic cohabiting rights in the following events:

1. If one unmarried partner dies, the other cohabiting partner will not automatically inherit their partner's assets.
2. Cohabiting partners are not automatically entitled to a share of their unmarried partners's finances after a split and have no legal rights to their partner’s pension after they die. 
3. If a cohabiting couple split up, men will not have an automatic right to see their children, and women will not be entitled to any kind of financial support. Cohabitors don’t count as legal ‘next of kin’.

So, if you want to find out your cohabiting rights and how you can protect yourself financially and in the eyes of the law, then our Living Together - An Essential Legal Guide can help.

Although you may not have defined cohabiting rights, there are steps you can take to ensure that you will be financially provided for in the event of separation, illness or death.

Living Together - An Essential Legal Guide will help you to take those steps and if you are one of the many people who didn't take any of these steps when your relationship was going well, then this cohabiting rights guide will tell you how to make the most of family law and about the protection you may be able to find.

Find out the answers to all your family law and cohabitation questions in this book, including:

• How to get it in writing and protect your legal rights at the start of the relationship
• Your rights to your property - what happens if you split up, whether you're renting or own your home
• Your rights over joint finances
• Parental responsibility over your children
• Your eligibility for benefits
• Gay and lesbian rights
• Domestic violence
• Splitting up - your rights over the property, child support, child maintenance

Living Together - An Essential Legal Guide also includes an example cohabitation agreement, living together agreement and parental responsibility agreement.

Cohabitation worries? Find out exactly where you stand now!

About the Author

Philippa Pearson specialises in all aspects of family law. She practises as a solicitor at Norris and Miles solicitors in Tenbury Wells, a firm specialising in family, private client, conveyancing and company law, as well as commercial and civil litigation. She also writes and lectures on many aspects of family law and is the author of the Separation & Divorce Kit, also published by Lawpack.

Other information

• Government scraps rights for cohabiting couples
• Judge calls for rights for unmarried couples
• Cohabitation and your lack of legal rights

Living Together - An Essential Legal Guide Contents

Template cohabitation legal forms:

• Parental responsibility agreement - England & Wales
• Parental responsibility and parental rights agreement - Scotland