Protect our cohabitees, say lawyers

Family lawyers have called for the law to catch up with modern life after official figures revealed a big increase in cohabiting couple families.

According to Office for National Statistics figures released last week, the number of families in the UK rose 8% from 17.7m to 19.1m in the decade 2008 to 2018. During that time, however, the number of cohabiting couple families rose by 25.8%.

Despite the societal change, however, lawyers say many cohabitees still mistakenly believe the law will protect them if their relationship breaks down.

Neil Russell, family partner at Seddons, said: ‘There remains the biggest myth of all in the belief that there is a “common law spouse”. There is no such thing.

‘Entitlement to share in a home is not automatic for the non-owning party. Only strict property rights apply. There is no entitlement to maintenance, other than for children. No entitlement to automatically inherit on death or to share a pension.

‘Parliament needs to legislate and in the meantime people need to be informed of the potential dangers of not securing their position in the event of a relationship coming to an end on the break up or death of a party.’

Graeme Fraser, partner at OGR Stock Denton and chair of family lawyers group Resolution’s cohabitation committee, said: ‘These statistics should come as no surprise, with even the Prime Minister being in a cohabiting relationship.

‘The fact that the number of cohabiting families is rising so quickly underscores the need for urgent reform so that couples who have lived together for a period of time enjoy certain automatic rights, unless they chose to opt out.’

In 2007, the Law Commission, which advises the government on law reform, recommended a statutory scheme of financial relief on separation, but the recommendations were not brought forward by the government. In 2018, the government said it would consider proceeding with the proposals, but no further announcement has been made.

Cohabiting couples in Scotland can make limited claims against each other on death or when a relationship breaks down. Northern Ireland also grants cohabitees legal protection in some areas.

For more, see David Burrows' NLJ article, 'Till divorce do us part' (10 May 2019).