The cohabitation conundrum

The lacuna in the law relating to cohabitants has been highlighted again by the Cohabitation Rights Bill which received its first reading in the House of Lords earlier this month. It isn’t the first time a Bill has sought to address the myriad of non-family law that applies to cohabitants, and it remains to be seen whether it will succeed, but one area the Bill highlights is how cohabitation may be defined. This article will consider:

• the wide-ranging definitions of cohabitation in the current law;
• the courts’ approach to pre-marriage cohabitation;
• the impact of post-separation/divorce cohabitation on spouses or civil partners in relation to financial provision, in particular periodical payments; and
• how that approach might change if a cohabitation Bill were to finally succeed.

Definitions

The Cohabitation Rights Bill defines cohabitation as two people (A and B) in a relationship, who are not married or civil partners of each other, or within prohibited degrees of relationship, and who:

• live together as a couple; and
• to whom