Many couples who live together for years, or even raise children together, assume they have legal rights similar to those of a married couple. They don’t. That misunderstanding can have serious financial consequences when a relationship ends or one partner dies.
The Government wants to change parts of this picture. A new consultation proposes some of the biggest reforms to family law in decades, covering divorce, cohabitation and inheritance. If adopted, the proposals would make the law on divorce more predictable and give some unmarried couples legal protection for the first time, while addressing some of the problems exposed by the persistent common law marriage myth.
For now, though, none of this is law. The current rules, gaps included, still apply to anyone separating, divorcing or planning a wedding today. Here’s what that current position looks like, what the Government wants to change, and what it could mean for you.
What is the law now?
At present, married couples and unmarried couples are treated very differently when a relationship ends.
When a marriage or civil partnership breaks down, the Family Court has wide powers to divide a couple’s money and property fairly. It can transfer property, order lump sum payments, share pensions, and award ongoing maintenance. Judges are guided by well-established principles built up over decades of court decisions, focused on meeting each person’s needs and sharing what was built up during the marriage. This gives the court flexibility to respond to individual circumstances, but it can also make outcomes hard to predict, and disputes over what counts as fair can drag on and become expensive.
Unmarried, cohabiting couples have no equivalent system to fall back on at all. If their relationship ends, they cannot apply to the Family Court for the kind of financial orders available to divorcing spouses. Instead, any dispute over property is dealt with under ordinary property and trust law, which looks narrowly at who legally owns what. It was never designed with separating couples in mind, and it gives the court no power to order maintenance, share a pension, or make a lump sum award. A partner who gave up work to raise children, or who contributed financially without being named on the property’s title, can end up with very little to show for years spent building a life together.
The common law marriage myth
There is no such thing as a “common law marriage” or a “common law spouse” in England and Wales, however long a couple has lived together. This gap in the law is made far more serious by a widely held but completely mistaken belief, often called the “common law marriage myth,” that couples who live together for long enough, or who have children together, automatically gain legal rights similar to those of a married couple.
They do not.
Living together for ten, twenty or even thirty years does not, by itself, give someone the same legal rights as a spouse. Having children together does not create those rights either. If an unmarried relationship ends, or one partner dies without a Will, the legal position can be very different from what many couples expect.
The scale of the misunderstanding is striking. Government research cited in the consultation found that almost half of people in England and Wales, 47 per cent, believe that common law marriage carries legal protections when it does not. Given that over 3.5 million couples in England and Wales now live together without marrying or entering a civil partnership, more than double the figure of three decades ago, so many people may be relying on rights that simply do not exist.
The consequences can be severe. A partner who has never worked, or who reduced their hours to care for children, may discover on separation that they have no automatic right to remain in the family home, no right to maintenance, and no claim to a share of their partner’s pension, however long the relationship lasted. The same gap applies on death. Under the current intestacy rules, a surviving cohabitant has no automatic right to inherit if their partner dies without a valid Will, no matter how long they lived together or whether they had children. Their only option is a discretionary claim through the courts, which can mean costly and stressful litigation at an already difficult time.
What is the Government proposing?
The consultation, published by the Ministry of Justice on 5th June 2026, brings together three connected areas of reform, covering financial claims on divorce, new rights for cohabiting couples, and inheritance. Taken individually, each proposal would mark a genuine shift from the current position. Taken together, they would represent the most significant rewrite of the law on financial provision when relationships end in over fifty years.
On divorce, the Government is not proposing to replace the current system. Instead, it wants to make the law clearer by setting well-established court principles down in legislation for the first time, while still allowing judges the flexibility they need to reach a fair outcome in each case. This matters because the current law, largely unchanged since 1973, gives judges very wide discretion and relatively little statutory guidance on how to exercise it. Putting the sharing and needs principles into legislation, alongside a structured three-step approach to assessing needs, would give couples a much clearer sense of what to expect before they ever set foot in a courtroom. Perhaps the more far-reaching change, though, is the proposal to give legal force to qualifying pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements. At present, no such agreement is guaranteed to be upheld, however carefully it is drafted, and the final decision always rests with the court. Under the proposals, an agreement that meets certain safeguards, including independent legal advice for both parties, full financial disclosure and a requirement to sign at least 28 days before the wedding, would become properly binding for the first time. For couples who value certainty over discretion, that would be a significant change in how much control they have over their own financial arrangements.
The cohabitation proposals go further still. For the first time, someone who has lived with a partner for years, perhaps raised children with them, but never married, could bring a financial claim against that partner when the relationship ends. Today, that right simply does not exist. Under the proposals, protection would apply automatically to couples who have lived together for at least three years, or who live together and share a child, with an option to opt out if both partners agreed. The starting point would still be that each person keeps what they legally own, and any award would remain narrower than what is available on divorce, so that marriage keeps its distinct legal status. But for millions of cohabiting couples currently outside the law’s reach altogether, even a narrower set of rights would be a fundamental change.
The third strand addresses what happens when a cohabiting partner dies without a Will. The Government is seeking views on giving qualifying cohabitants an automatic right to inherit under the intestacy rules, and on removing the current two-year waiting period before cohabitants with children can make a claim against a partner’s estate. This would close a gap that, at present, can leave a bereaved partner of many years with no legal claim on their late partner’s estate at all, however settled and long-standing the relationship was.
When could anything change?
After the consultation closes on 14th August 2026, the Government will consider the responses before deciding whether to introduce legislation. Even if reform goes ahead, it is likely to take considerable time before any changes actually become law, as the Government has confirmed only that legislation will follow “when parliamentary time allows.” For anyone separating, divorcing or planning ahead today, the existing law continues to apply exactly as it stands.
What should couples do now?
While the law remains unchanged, this is a timely reminder for couples to review their own arrangements.
Cohabiting couples should consider whether a cohabitation agreement, setting out how property and finances would be handled if the relationship ended, would give them greater certainty. Making or updating a Will is equally important, since it remains the only reliable way to ensure a partner is provided for if the worst happens. Those planning to marry may also wish to take advice on whether a pre-nuptial agreement is right for them.
Whether or not these proposals become law, they are a useful reminder that the legal position on separation is often very different from what many couples expect. Taking legal advice early can help you understand your rights, protect your interests and plan with confidence.
