LAW

Legal Position of Cohabitees Who's Relationship Breaks Down

Legal Position of Cohabitees Who's Relationship Breaks Down

Introduction

The number of people who are living together in a relationship but who are neither married nor civil partners continues to rise. Many of these people are probably completely unaware that they have few rights in the event of a break-up of their relationship and that such rights as they do have centre around any children of the relationship. It is estimated that within fifteen years, nearly a third of all households will be made up of cohabitees as opposed to married couples or civil partners.

The problems that the current legal position has left unresolved have led the Law Commission to issue a consultation document called 'Cohabitation: the Financial Consequences of Relationship Breakdown', which runs to nearly 400 pages.

According to the Law Commission, a scheme is necessary to set out the respective rights of cohabitees. In the Commission's view, these rights should be automatic, but couples should be able to 'opt out' if they so wish. Accordingly, the scheme would apply to all cohabiting couples unless they specifically elect for it not to. It would necessitate the creation of a 'cohabitation contract', which would be required to be in writing, signed and witnessed. It is possible that cohabitation contracts would be required to be made with the benefit of legal advice. The Law Commission's proposal is that the scheme should be available to all cohabitants who have children and to those who have cohabited for two years or more, whether or not they have children.

According to family lawyers there has been a surge in the number of cohabitees seeking relationship advice in England and Wales, with cases up by about 15% in the first quarter of this year, compared with last year.

This large increase has been caused partly because more people are now living together and therefore there would be more breakdowns of relationships.

Also, as the recession begins to bite hard, many people have lost their jobs, or are experiencing a fall-off in business and are finding it difficult to meet their financial commitments, falling behind in mortgage payments or rent, and losing their homes, with some people even going bankrupt. These financial pressures cause stress, bad temper, lack of transparency and disagreements, all of which are instrumental in causing breakdown of relationships.

After a relatively short term relationship, with no children involved, a break-up may well have emotional and social consequences, but there are not necessarily any long term legalconsequences (unless either person has changed their situation substantially).

However difficulties can arise when the parties have in fact changed their position, possibly by having a child, or by entering into joint commitments such as buying or renting property and expensive items, or one person contributing substantially more financially than the other, or making promises which have not been fulfilled.

Discussion

There may be laws which appear to favour married spouses over unmarried couples. These lawsprovide automatic benefits to married couples on separation, such as a presumption that bothparties will have an ...