What are my rights if I am not married to my partner?

The ‘common law’ myth

There are lots of myths out there about co-habiting couples acquiring the same rights as married couples, once they have lived together for a certain period of time. Put simply, there is no law for the ‘nearly marrieds’. The idea of a ‘common law’ husband or wife has no legal status. You are either married or you are not. You cannot acquire the same rights that you would acquire if you were married, if you choose not to marry. You can live with a partner for decades; if you do not marry, you do not acquire any of the rights that you would have had, had a formal marriage taken place.

If you are the parent with care of children, your only maintenance claim is in respect of child maintenance

In most cases, child maintenance is calculated in accordance with the formula set down by the Government, presently being administered by The Child Maintenance Service. It is important to note that if you have given up work to look after children, and your relationship fails, in most circumstances you have no claim for maintenance from your former partner to support you whilst you look for work.

Co-habiting couples who separate have no enhanced claim over the other’s assets

Unlike marriage, where all assets are placed into a “pot” for division, this does not happen in the case of co-habiting couples. Put simply, he or she who bought the asset, owns it. If any assets were purchased from joint funds, then those assets are open to negotiation as to their division. If you or your former partner have considerable savings in their name, and the other has nothing, and there is no evidence to prove that the other party contributed to those savings, then those monies will belong to the person in whose name they are held. There is no right to “share” those monies.

If you purchase a house with your partner, upon separation, the proceeds of sale will be divided in accordance with how the house was originally purchased

If you purchased the property and contributed equally to its deposit then the Court, under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act, will divide the equity in the property in accordance with how it was purchased. It is possible, if one of you is to pay for major renovations to a property, for that to be altered but it should only ever be altered by way of legal documentation so that in the event of a relationship breakdown, there is some evidence as to how you wish the property to be dealt with, and in particular in respect of the equity contained within it.

If you are not married the Courts do not have the power to order the transfer of the property into the other person’s name

The Court do not have the power to postpone a sale for a significant period, unless in very certain circumstances. Because of this, there are no such things as 60%/40% division of assets etc. as would be the case when dealing with divorcing couples.

If you have children, and are not married, there may be certain claims under Schedule 1 of The Children Act 1989 but that is for a different blog to this!  If you have no children, and you are not married, then no matter how long you have resided together, you do not have financial claims against the other.  You only have a claim in respect of assets that were purchased jointly by you or in which you should have acquired an interest because of some action (eg paying for an extension to the house).

A Co-habitation Agreement can help clarify your respective rights and obligations

Given the common misunderstandings about the legal status of co-habitees, it is vitally important that you are clear on your rights and obligations if you co-habit.  Here at Harrowells, we can advise you on Co-habitation Agreements and on other issues you might need to consider, for example if you purchasing any property outside the ambit of marriage. As unromantic as it may be, if you cannot agree what to do in the event of a separation, when all is well within your relationship, it will be very difficult for you to resolve any difficulties should you decide to separate!

We have an experienced Family Law Team who will be able to advise you fully in respect of all these issues.