“Urgent” reforms are needed to current laws which leave cohabiting couples receiving “inferior protections” despite a shift in social norms, a cross-party group of MPs has suggested. The Commons Women and Equalities Committee warned that many people believe in the “so-called common-law marriage myth”, often leaving women vulnerable to a “lack of legal protection on family breakdown” or the death of a partner.
The MPs’ report, entitled The Rights Of Cohabiting Partners, noted that cohabitation “is the fastest growing family type” in England and Wales, adding: “In 2021 there were around 3.6 million cohabiting couples in the UK compared with 1.5 million in 1996.” It said: “Whereas married couples and civil partners in England and Wales have certain legal rights and responsibilities upon divorce or death, cohabitants receive inferior protections.
“Notwithstanding the legal reality, many people believe in the so-called ‘common-law marriage myth’, which is the erroneous belief that, after a certain amount of time of living together, the law treats cohabitants as if they were married. On family breakdown, cohabitants must rely on complex property law and trusts principles.”
