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#Living together and marriage: legal differences - Citizens Advice

This advice applies to England

Advice for other parts of the UK

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About this information

Your legal rights as a partner may depend on whether you are married or living together. Living together with someone is sometimes also called cohabitation.

Generally speaking, you will have fewer rights if you're living together than if you're married.

This information explains the legal differences between being married and living together. In England and Wales, this covers same-sex partners who can now get married. It does not cover civil partnerships.

Legal status

Living together

Although there is no legal definition of living together, it generally means to live together as a couple without being married.

You can formalise aspects of your status with a partner by drawing up a legal agreement called a cohabitation contract or living together agreement. A living together agreement outlines the rights and obligations of each partner towards each other. It is not clear whether living together agreements are legally enforceable but they can be useful to remind a couple of their original intentions. In practice, instead of a living together agreement, or as well as, it's possible to make a series of legally enforceable agreements on specific matters, for example, how a jointly-owned house is shared. If you want to do this, you will need legal advice.

The help of a solicitor experienced in family law will be necessary. A Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to give details of suitable solicitors. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB .

In England and Wales, for more information about living together agreements, see Living Together Agreements on the Advicenow website at www.advicenow.org.uk .

Common-law spouses

Although the terms common-law wife or husband are frequently used to describe a couple who live together, these relationships do not have legal recognition.

Marriage

You can choose a civil or religious marriage, but in some cases, a religious marriage alone will not be valid and you will also need a civil marriage.

Proof of a marriage can be:-

• a certified copy of an entry in a UK register of marriages; or
• a marriage certificate issued in the country where the marriage took place.

Banking

Living together

If you are living together and you and your partner have separate bank accounts, neither of you can have access to money held in the other partner’s account. If one partner dies, any balance in the account will be the property of your partner's estate and cannot be used until the estate is settled.

If you have a joint account, then both you and your partner have access to the account, regardless of whether only one of you pays into it. If your relationship ends, the money will belong to both of you. However, if one of you didn't use the account at all, for example, you didn't pay any money in or take any out, it may be difficult to claim that you have any right to it.

If the account is in joint names, on the death of one partner, the other partner becomes entitled to the balance and can continue to have unlimited access to the account. However, a proportion of the balance will be taken into account when calculating the value of the estate of the person who has died.

If you separate from your partner, you should consider closing an account in joint names to avoid your partner accessing the funds or running up debts which will be your responsibility.

Marriage

If a married couple has a joint bank account, the money is owned jointly regardless of who put it into the account. On the death of one partner, the whole account immediately becomes the property of the other. Debts and overdrafts relating to a joint bank account will be the responsibility of both or either partner, irrespective of who incurred them.

If each partner in a married couple has a separate bank account and one dies, the bank may allow the other partner to withdraw the balance providing the amount is small.

If you separate from your partner, you should consider closing an account in joint names to avoid your partner accessing the funds or running up debts which will be your responsibility.

Children

Parental responsibility

What is parental responsibility

Parents with parental responsibility are entitled to have a say in important decisions about a child's life such as the child's home, health, education, religion, name, money and property. Parental responsibility lasts until a child reaches 18 or marries between the ages of 16 and 18.

Who has parental responsibility

You will have parental responsibility if you're:

• the child's birth mother, or
• the husband of the child's birth mother, or
• the female married partner of the child's birth mother and you are treated as the child's legal parent, or
• an adoptive parent.

Who can get parental responsibility

If you don't have parental responsibility, you might be able to get it.

If you're an unmarried father or an unmarried female partner of the child's mother, you don't have parental responsibility. However, you can get parental responsibility for your child by:

• registering (or re-registering) the birth of your child together with the child's mother, or
• making a parental responsibility agreement with the mother and registering it at court, or
• obtaining a parental responsibility order, or
• becoming the child’s guardian (which would only take effect on the mother’s death), or
• marrying the mother.

In England and Wales, for more information about parental responsibility, including how you can get parental responsibility for your partner's children, visit the Advicenow website at www.advicenow.org.uk .

Contact with children

Living together and marriage

If you separate, you and your partner may make an informal arrangement for contact with your child. This is the case whether you are living together or married. If it isn't possible to make an informal arrangement, you can apply to the court for a child arrangements order (in Northern Ireland, a contact order). The court order will usually allow contact between the child and the parent with whom the child is not living, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Financial support of children

Appointing a guardian

Inheritance

Living together and marriage

Even if there is no will, the child of unmarried and married parents has a legal right to inherit from both legal parents and the families of both parents.

Nationality

The rules about the nationality of children are complicated and depend on the parents’ immigration status as well as whether the parents are married or living together.

If you are worried about the nationality or immigration status of your children consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB .