Two million couple’s legal rights are in jeopardy
A staggering report recently revealed that over 2 million couples living together in England and Wales have very few legal rights as unmarried cohabitants in the event of the relationship coming to an end.
Over half of a sample of cohabiting couples believed that “common law marriage” was a recognised legal status and would allow their partner to inheritance rights should anything happen to them. There is in fact “no such thing in court” and hasn’t been since 1753, and without an up-to-date will partners could potentially be left penniless in the event of death. On top of this, 1 in 4 children are born into unmarried households, so the implications of being legally unprotected extend beyond the couple themselves!
And it’s not just death that could threaten the right to assets; if a cohabiting couple end their relationship and one partner does not have a financial stake in the property, they may have no right to it whatsoever, irrelevant of how long they’ve lived there, and irrelevant of mutual children.
Despite a report by the Law Commission in 2006 which suggested giving cohabiters legal rights similar to married couples, nothing seems set to change and it remains paramount for cohabiting couples to protect their legal rights with appropriate documentation.
Epoq offers a range of legal documentation relevant to cohabiting couples, including:
Comprehensive pair of wills for an unmarried couple