What is unmarried cohabitation?
There is no legal definition of what
cohabitation actually means. It has
been called a function-based relationship in comparison to a
relationship based on love and family.
Cohabitation has been given a wide, varied
definition in case law, a very broad outline on what the courts have
said to be included in the concept of cohabitation includes
relationships were:
- A Couple live together as husband and
wife without being married or
civil partners
- Members of the same household
- A relationship were a couple shares
expenses
- Sexual relationships
- Relationships publicly known
- Relationships were children have been
conceived
The relationship which is everyday recognised
as a cohabiting relationship is that of a couple living together as
if they were husband and wife without the legal documentation of a
marriage.
The Legal Consequences of Marriage, Civil
Partnerships, and Unmarried Couples
Financial Support
- Once a couple are married they share a
mutual duty to provide for one and other with financial
support.
- This mutual duty of financial support has
now extended to cover civil partners since the introduction of
the Civil Partnership Act 2004
- Cohabiting Partners have no mutual duty
to provide for each other with financial support, either during
their relationship or if the relationship ever breaks down.
Property Rights
Occupation of a Property
- Under the Family Law Act 1996, S30 explains how spouses and
civil partners have ‘home rights’ which automatically arise,
without the need for either partner to apply.
- Home rights will give both partners, whether to a marriage
or civil partnership, the right to not be evicted from the
family home after separation or during the relationship, even
where only one partner legal owns the home.
- The rights can be exercisable against a third person if the
property concerned is registered with HM registry, and the
interest in the property is registered as either a land charge
or with a notice on the Land register.
- Cohabiting partners may apply for an ‘occupation order’
under the Family Law Act 1996, to gain the rights equivalent
to matrimonial home rights. However, this is not an automatic
right.
Ownership of a property
- Spouses and civil partners are subject to the general law of
property during their marriage/ civil partnership.
- The courts do have a wide discretion to order the sale or
transfer of a property on the divorce or dissolution of the
relationship.
- In relation to Cohabitants, they are subject to the general
rules of property both during and after their relationship,
There are no special rules governing family assets.
Inheritance and succession
- Where one spouse/ Civil partner dies, the surviving spouse/
Civil partner has the right to inheritance where the deceased
has died before the creation of a
will.
- A surviving partner of a cohabitant has no automatic right
to any inheritance where their partner dies intestate, but they
do have the ability to make a claim under the Inheritance
(provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
- This will allow an unmarried partner to make an order
without having to show that the surviving partner was being
cared for by the deceased. The surviving partner will have to
show that they lived with the deceased for two years immediately
prior to the death of the partner and that the will failed to
make reasonable financial provisions for the surviving partner.
Children
- Family Law Reform Act 1987, abolished the label
‘illegitimate’ child. Nearly all the differences in treatment
based on the marital status of a child’s parents are now gone.
