Cheshire Family Law Specialist Denise Woodward – The Rights of Cohabitants

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

In December 2011 the Law Commissioners recommendation was that certain cohabitants should be entitled to inheritance rights without a Will.

This news will come as a relief to over 2 million couples who currently live together and are not married, if the Government take this recommendation forward.

Many people believe that “common law” spouses have legal rights.  There is no concept in English law of common law spouses it is a popular myth and it simply is not the case.  Under the proposed recommendations it doesn’t mean cohabiting couples would have equal rights to married couples, but it reflects the way many people are choosing to live their lives.

The draft Inheritance (Cohabitants) Bill contains provisions that would give certain unmarried partners who have lived together for five years the right to inherit on each others death under the intestacy rules.  Where the couple have a child together this entitlement would accrue after two years cohabitation provided the child was living with them when the deceased died. 

See http://www.justice.gov.uk/lawcommission/docs/lc331_intestacy_summary.pdf for more information.

These notes are for guidance purposes only. We believe the contents to be correct but it should not be taken as sufficiently accurate or full to apply in any specific situation without first referring to us. We would be pleased to advise on any specific issues or problems.