Unmarried &
Cohabitation Separation

No. Common law marriage does not exist in England and Wales and has not for centuries, despite most people believing otherwise. Living together for any length of time gives you no automatic rights to your partner’s property, savings, pension or income, and having children together does not change that. Your position depends on what you own, what you both intended when you acquired it, and what you can agree. This is the single biggest surprise for separating couples who were never married, and it is why getting things sorted properly matters.

Broadly, you are entitled to what you own, plus any share of jointly owned property, plus anything you can establish you have a beneficial interest in. You cannot claim maintenance for yourself, a share of your partner’s pension, or a share of assets simply because the relationship lasted a long time. Where there are children, the position is different, because they have rights to be supported and housed. Everything else comes down to property law and evidence, which is why an agreement you both accept is usually a far better outcome than an argument about it.

You may still have a claim, but you will need to establish it rather than assume it. The question is whether there was a shared intention that you would have a share in the property, and whether you acted on that, for example by contributing to the deposit, the mortgage or substantial improvements. Evidence matters: messages, emails, bank transfers and anything said at the time. This is exactly the kind of dispute that becomes ruinously expensive in court and is usually resolvable in mediation, where both of you can look at the facts honestly rather than paying solicitors to argue about them.

No. There is no spousal maintenance between unmarried partners, however long you lived together and whatever you gave up during the relationship. This often comes as a shock to someone who stopped working or reduced their hours to look after children. What can be claimed is support for the children, which includes child maintenance and, in some cases, provision to house them. Those claims belong to the children rather than to you, and they end when the children are grown.

Usually yes, if he is named on the birth certificate. Fathers who were not married to the mother acquire parental responsibility by being registered on the birth certificate for children born on or after 1 December 2003. Where that did not happen, it can be obtained by a written parental responsibility agreement with the mother, or by applying to court. Parental responsibility is separate from where the children live and how much time they spend with each parent, and all of those can be agreed in mediation.

It is the court route for arguing about property ownership between people who were not married, brought under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. The court decides who owns what share, and it can order a sale. Two things make it unattractive. It is a civil claim rather than a family one, so the loser can be ordered to pay the winner’s legal costs on top of their own. And the court can only rule on ownership, so it cannot make the sort of needs-based adjustments a divorce court can. Most people are better served by agreeing a figure than by risking that.

Yes, though the document is different from the one married couples use. Depending on what you have agreed, it might be a separation agreement setting out what happens between you, a declaration of trust recording the shares in a property, or a transfer of equity. Where there are children, arrangements can be recorded in a consent order. Each of you should take independent legal advice before signing, because that is a large part of what makes an agreement stand up. We can arrange the drafting once you have reached agreement in mediation.

Unmarried partners do not inherit automatically. If your partner dies without a will, the intestacy rules pass their estate to their children or other relatives, and you receive nothing however long you were together. You may be able to bring a claim as a dependant, but that means going to court. How you own a property matters too: joint tenants pass automatically to the survivor, tenants in common do not. It is worth reviewing wills, property ownership and any death in service or pension nominations as part of separating, and again afterwards.

If you are still together, yes, and it is the single most useful thing you can do. A cohabitation agreement sets out what happens if you separate, and a declaration of trust records the shares each of you owns in a property, which is particularly valuable where the deposits were unequal or one family contributed. They avoid exactly the arguments this page is about. If you are already separating, the equivalent is a properly drafted separation agreement recording what you have decided.

Yes. Child maintenance has nothing to do with whether the parents were married. Both parents are responsible for supporting their children financially, and the amount is based on the paying parent’s income, the number of children and how many nights they stay overnight. Most parents agree it between themselves using the Child Maintenance Service calculator as a reference point. You can agree it in mediation and record it in writing, and either of you can go to the Child Maintenance Service later if the arrangement stops working.