A family law group has warned that millions of couples who live together unmarried could be unaware of their rights should their relationship break down.
A survey carried out by Resolution found that over 60% of couples who cohabit believe wrongly that they are protected under ‘common-law marriage’ laws when they are splitting up their assets.
Between 1996 and 2017, the number of cohabiting couples in the UK has more than doubled, rising from 1.5 million to 3.3 million.
The chairman of Resolution, Nigel Shepherd, has said that the current laws are outdated, he said: ‘The government must listen to the public, legal professionals and a growing number of politicians who all agree that we need reform to provide basic rights to cohabiting couples should they separate.’
Describing a changing society, he said that the fastest-growing family type in the UK is the cohabiting couple.
Under existing law, he says that one is able to live with their partner for decades, as well as have children, but then be left with no responsibility for the former partner in the event of the relationship breaking down.
Under Scots Law, cohabiting couples can be recognised in certain circumstances, with legislation introduced in 2006 allowing cohabitants to apply for financial provision through the court.
The ComRes poll conducted by
Of the 2,000 respondents, 281 were living as cohabiting couples, and two-thirds of these couples were under the impression that they were common-law married.
Four out of five cohabitants thought that the legal rights which are awarded to cohabiting couples who separate were ‘unclear’.
Cohabiting partners with children will retain the legal rights and responsibilities of being a parent.
Yvonne, a mother-of-five lived with her partner for 17 years before the relationship ended. After researching her legal rights following the break-up, she said she was ‘shocked’ at the lack of protection she was afforded, saying that she was ‘entitled to nothing’.
Speaking of the toll this took on her, she said that it no longer became an issue of just breaking up with her partner, but the resulting fallout of losing everything she thought she jointly owned.
She gave up paid work to look after their children, and subsequently is left without a pension, no independent funds, and has had to move house. She said that it has left her devastated, and calls on the law to do more to help people in her situation.
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