For years, family solicitors have had to give some clients an answer they were not expecting to hear: living together for a long time does not give an unmarried couple the same financial rights as a married couple if they separate.
The idea of the “common law husband” or “common law wife” remains remarkably persistent. We still meet clients who have lived with their partner for ten, fifteen or twenty years and assume that the length of the relationship must give them similar rights to those available on divorce. It does not.
That position could, however, be set to change.
The Government has recently consulted on proposals to introduce a new legal framework providing financial rights and protections for some cohabiting couples when their relationship ends. The consultation closed on 14 August 2026 and the Government will now consider the responses before deciding how to proceed. This could represent a significant development in family law, although it is important to be clear that the proposals have not become law.
Under the proposals put forward for consultation, the new framework could apply to couples who have lived together for at least three years, or couples who live together and share a child. The court would also need to be satisfied that the couple were living together in an enduring family relationship.
The intention is not to give unmarried couples the same rights as married couples, but to provide greater protection where the end of a relationship might otherwise leave one person financially vulnerable. That distinction is important.
When a married couple divorce, the Family Court has wide powers to deal with their finances. It can make orders concerning property, pensions, lump sums and maintenance and will consider the financial circumstances of the family as a whole.
The position for unmarried couples is very different. There is currently no equivalent general power to redistribute assets simply because two people have lived together as a couple. Disputes about property can instead depend upon legal ownership and principles of trusts and property law, which can produce a very different outcome from divorce.
We see the difficulty this can cause particularly where a couple have organised their lives on the basis that one person earns while the other takes greater responsibility for the home or children. A relationship may have lasted many years, but that alone does not currently create the financial claims that would arise from a marriage.
The Government’s proposed framework seeks to address some of those situations. Legal ownership would remain the starting point and there would be no automatic 50/50 division of assets. Instead, the proposals would allow the court to consider whether one partner has suffered an economic disadvantage, or the other has retained an economic benefit, as a result of contributions made during the relationship. There would also be limited provision to address certain financial needs following separation.
The proposed scheme would therefore remain deliberately narrower than the law applying on divorce. It is not a proposal to turn cohabitation into marriage by another name.
The Government is also considering allowing eligible couples to opt out of the proposed financial regime by agreement. If that becomes law, cohabitation agreements are likely to become even more important for couples who want greater certainty about how their finances should be dealt with if they separate.
For the moment, however, the existing law remains unchanged.
Unmarried couples should not assume that the proposed reforms already protect them, nor should they delay putting appropriate arrangements in place because the law may change in the future. How a property is owned, what each person has contributed and whether there is a cohabitation agreement or declaration of trust can still be extremely important if a relationship ends.
The proposals nevertheless mark an important point in the continuing debate about whether the law adequately reflects the way families now live. More than 3.5 million couples now live together without marrying or entering into a civil partnership, so any eventual reform could affect a significant number of families.
Our Family Law team advises unmarried couples on separation, property disputes, cohabitation agreements and arrangements concerning children. We can also advise couples who are moving in together and want to understand how best to protect their respective financial positions.
If you are living with a partner, separating from an unmarried partner or would like advice about a cohabitation agreement, please contact our Family Law team on 01708 446781 or by email mail@mosco.co.uk
