Mace & Jones welcomes new bill to tighten laws covering co-habiting couples

Published: 10th July 2008

Leading North West law firm Mace & Jones is throwing its weight behind plans to introduce a parliamentary bill aimed at improving the law covering the estimated two million Britons who live together.

Mace & Jones has one of the most experienced and best qualified family law teams in the North West. And its family law partner Emma Collins sits on the national co-habiting couples committee of Resolution - an association of 5000 family lawyers and a powerful lobbying force behind the bill. Ms Collins said the law covering co-habiting couples is inconsistent and limited in its scope.

"Sensibly drafted legislation is urgently needed to tackle the vulnerability not only of unmarried cohabiting couples and their children but also co-dependent carers and siblings who live together," she said. "At present the law is inadequate and ill suited to resolving the breakdown of an unmarried couple's relationship, particularly where money and children are involved, And the scale of the problem is huge when you consider two million couples cohabit outside marriage, many with children. Frequently these people are unaware of their lack of rights and many wrongly believe that cohabitation makes them common law spouses with rights similar to married couples. This misconception can backfire badly when a relationship breaks down and a partner can be left with little or nothing. This can be the case in spite of the fact they may have made financial or other contributions to the household or reduced their earning capacity by looking after children."

Co-habiting couples wanting legal guidance and advice can contact emma.collins@maceandjones.co.uk or any member of the Mace & Jones family law team in Liverpool: 0151 236 8989 Manchester: 0161 2154 0500 Knutsford: 01565 634234

The Bill to give rights to couples who live together will be introduced by Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC, a veteran human rights lawyer who successfully introduced the Forced Marriages Bill and was instrumental in developing the recent Civil Partnership Act.

The Bill's introduction is part of a new "Living Together" campaign, launched today by Resolution and Lord Lester's Odysseus Trust. Joyce and Sybil Burden, the elderly sisters who took their 30-year fight to protect their home from inheritance tax right up to the European Court of Human Rights, have added their support to the campaign:

One in six couples in the UK co-habit and do not marry according to the Office of National Statistics and this is predicted to rise to one in four by 2031. More than half of cohabitants (53%) still falsely believe in the existence of Common Law marriage. However, the Government has decided to postpone action on recent Law Commission proposals to reform cohabitation law pending research into the cost and benefits of reforms introduced in Scotland.

David Allison, Chair of Resolution's cohabitation law reform task force, says that Britain's more than two million cohabiting couples and co-dependents should not be made to wait any longer for justice:

"The Government's proposed research won't even begin until 2010 and if cost was the issue, one has to ask why the Government specifically excluded research on cost from the Law Commission's original brief. Many other countries, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand already have protection for cohabiting couples. It is high time that Britain had a family legal system fit for the 21st century."

Findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey, published earlier this year, show that almost nine out of ten people think that a cohabiting partner should have a right to financial provision if their relationship is a long-term one, has involved prioritising one partner's career or includes children.

The campaign will also look at ways to extend protection to those who cannot marry but nevertheless live together in a co-dependent way. For example, it would cover siblings such as the Burden sisters, elderly parents and children who live with them and care for them.

The Bill would protect the vulnerable without equating living together to marriage or civil partnership in every way. For example, the Bill would apply only to people living in the same household for a minimum period of time in which the parties have provided a financial or other commitment to each other. To protect freedom of choice, couples who wish to do so could "opt out" of the scheme provided legal advice is sought by both parties to protect the vulnerable.