13.04.16

We are really happy to welcome Lisa Burton-Durham to the Renaissance family. Lisa is a Chartered Legal Executive and Resolution trained Collaborative Lawyer from Family Law Partners. In this post Lisa discusses the issues surrounding living with your partner but not being married, over to Lisa.

The harsh reality is that if you break up with your partner you will have almost no automatic financial or property rights beyond child support, even if you have been together for years.

Last year we were informed that the number of couples choosing to live together has doubled over the last 16 years and that couples living together are just as likely to have children than those couples who choose to get married.  There are currently over three million cohabiting couples in England and Wales and three quarters of those have children.

So what happens if you split up?

1. Your ex doesn’t have to pay you any maintenance (other than child support) even if, for example, you have given up work to look after the children;
2. If you rent your home and the tenancy is in your partner’s sole name you will not have an automatic right to stay there;
3. If your partner owns your home in his/her sole name you do not have an automatic right to stay there;
4. You have no automatic right to insist that your partner contributes towards the mortgage or rent if it is in your sole name;
5. You will have no claim on your partner’s savings or pensions;
6. You will only automatically be able to keep your own possessions;
7. Depending on various factors if you are the father of your children you may not have automatic Parental Responsibility for them;
8. You will need to decide who the children will live with and when and how they will see the other parent;
9. You will need to think about who will pay child support and how much.

As you can see from the above the law treats couples who live together as two unrelated individuals which is far removed from any link to marriage as it could possibly be.

There are legal provisions available to cohabitants but they are within a patchy legal framework and are often confusing, illogical and unfair.

The lack of rights for cohabitants has been reviewed by the Law Commission who put forward recommendations going forward but these were rejected by the government.  The subject appears to have been put on the back burner for now.  Any change in the law is therefore some way off despite there being constant calls for things to change by MPs and Resolution.

What can be done in the meantime?

Couples living together should look to protect their positions by entering into a Cohabitation Agreement (also known as a Living Together Agreement).  Although there is no guarantee that such an agreement will be legally binding it will have considerable evidential weight should it ever see the light of day.

Cohabitation Agreements can include details about property, mortgage payments, outgoings, debt liability and much more.  They are an excellent way of agreeing the day to day financial aspects of your relationship and can protect you both from whatever might happen to your relationship in the future.

If you’re buying a property together it is vital that you decide how you are going to own the property, who pays what and who will receive what when it is sold. You can record these agreements in a document often refererd to as a Deed or Declaration of Trust.

If it’s too late to enter into a Cohabitation Agreement and you have already separated then it is important that you take early legal advice from a Resolution Family Lawyer.

Options such as Mediation and Collaborative Law can assist greatly in discussing the issues and reaching an agreement.  If you cannot agree then rather then the court (which can very very costly and slow) Arbitration may provide a sensible alternative.

Family Law Partners
www.familylawpartners.co.uk