Cohabitation, the myth of common law marriage, and the government’s 2026 consultation.
There are an estimated 3.6 million cohabiting couples in the UK; people who have built homes, families and finances together without marrying. Ask most of them what happens legally if the relationship ends, or if one partner dies, and you’ll often hear some version of the same answer: “we’re basically common law married, so we’re covered.” It’s one of the most persistent myths in English law. It’s also completely wrong.
There is no such thing as common law marriage
However long a couple has lived together, however many children they’ve raised or mortgages they’ve shared, cohabitation creates no automatic legal status in England and Wales. No matter how it feels in practice, the law simply does not recognise it as anything close to marriage.
That gap matters most at the two moments it can least afford to: separation and death. If a cohabiting relationship ends, there is no dedicated framework for dividing assets. Instead, disputes are fought out through trust and property law, often turning on technicalities like whose name is on a mortgage or who paid which bill fifteen years ago. And if a partner dies without a Will, the surviving partner has no automatic right to inherit anything. The estate passes to blood relatives under the intestacy rules, regardless of how the couple actually lived their lives together.
Imagine a couple who’ve lived together for twelve years, raised two children, and both contributed to the mortgage even though the house is registered solely in one partner’s name. If that partner dies without a Will, the other has no automatic right to stay in the home, let alone inherit any part of the estate. Their only route is a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, proving financial dependency to a court, at the worst possible time. It isn’t a hypothetical; it’s the position facing a significant share of the UK’s 3.6 million cohabiting couples today.
Change is finally on the table
On 5 June 2026, the Ministry of Justice launched a ten-week consultation, “A fairer end to relationships,” examining reforms across three connected areas: financial remedies on divorce, financial provision for cohabitants when they separate, and inheritance rights for cohabitants when a partner dies without a Will.
For cohabiting couples specifically, the proposals include a new statutory scheme for those who separate after living together for at least three years, or sooner if they have a child together. It would be a needs-based framework rather than automatically sharing assets, closer in spirit to spousal maintenance than a full divorce settlement, and deliberately narrower than the rights married couples have. On death, the government is proposing to extend intestacy rights to qualifying cohabitants for the first time, potentially placing them closer to the position of a spouse, and to give a surviving partner priority to administer the estate.
It would mark the most significant change to this area of law in decades. But it is, for now, only a proposal. The consultation closes on 14 August 2026, and even once responses are considered, any resulting legislation would need to pass through Parliament, meaning change is unlikely to take effect before 2028 at the earliest.
Why couples aren’t waiting
That timeline is exactly why so many cohabiting couples are acting now rather than waiting for the law to catch up. Cohabitation agreements, legal documents setting out how property, finances and belongings would be handled if a relationship ends, have seen roughly a 200% rise in demand in recent years, as couples look for certainty the law doesn’t yet provide.
It’s a sensible instinct. A cohabitation agreement can record who owns what and in what proportions, how a jointly owned home would be dealt with on separation, and what happens to shared debts or savings. Paired with a properly drafted Will and, where relevant, a declaration of trust setting out property shares, it gives a couple real protection today rather than a promise for the future.
What this means for you, right now
If you’re cohabiting, the practical position hasn’t changed yet, whatever the headlines say. Your partner still cannot inherit automatically if you die without a Will. You still have no guaranteed right to a share of a jointly used home that’s registered in your partner’s sole name. And if you separate, your financial position will still be decided under general property law, not family law designed with couples like you in mind.
The consultation is a welcome signal of where the law is heading, and it’s open to public views until 14 August 2026 for anyone who wants to have their say in shaping it. But reform, however likely, is not protection. The couples who are best placed when change eventually arrives will be the ones who didn’t wait for it, who put a Will, a cohabitation agreement and clear property arrangements in place while the old rules still apply.
If you’re living with a partner and haven’t taken these steps, now is the moment. Speak to our family law team, and we’ll discuss with you exactly where you stand today, and what you can do about it before the rules change around you.
