The rights of live-in partners

Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006,for the first time identified,and in the process by default legalised,live-in relationships of over 150,000 cohabiting couples in the country. Section 25 (2) of the Act said that a court of law can consider a person as a co-habitant of another by checking on three factors: the length of the period during which they lived together,the nature of the relationship during that period and the nature and extent of any financial arrangements.

In case of breakdown of relationship,under section 28,a cohabitant has the right to apply in court for financial support. This is in cases of separation and not death of either partner. If a partner dies intestate,the survivor can move the court for financial support from his estate. The law will remain unchanged if the deceased cohabitant has made a will. However,all these remedies will be applicable only if a person moves court within six months of the death of his live-in partner.

France

Live-in relationships are governed by the Civil Solidarity Pact or “pacte civil de solidarité” or PaCS,passed by the French National Assembly in October 1999. Cohabitation is defined as a “de facto stable and continuous relationship” between two persons of different sexes or of the same sex living together as a couple. The pact defines the relationship as a contract,and the couples involved as “contractants”. The contract binds “two adults of different sexes or of the same sex,in order to organise their common life”. For a valid contract to exist,the contractants “may not be bound” by another pact,“by marriage,sibling or lineage”.

United Kingdom

Live-in relationships are largely covered by the Civil Partnership Act 2004. Though a man and woman living together in a stable sexual relationship are often referred to as “common law spouses”,the expression is not wholly correct in law in England and Wales. The UK feels that live-in partners owe each other more than that to be worthy of the term. As per a 2010 note from the Home Affairs Section to the House of Commons,unmarried couples have no guaranteed rights to ownership of each other’s property on breakdown of relationship. If a cohabiting couple separates,the courts have no power to override the strict legal ownership of property and divide it as they may do on divorce. In cases of domestic violence,cohabitants can benefit from the provisions of the Family Law Act,1996 which allows “home-sharers and former home-sharers (including same-sex partners) to apply for non-molestation orders and/or court orders regulating the occupation of the family home”.

Unmarried partners have no automatic inheritance rights over their partner’s assets on death. Cohabiting couples are treated as unconnected individuals for taxation purposes. The list of persons eligible to register a death does not automatically include a cohabitant. The best way to be safe for live-in couples is to “enter into a cohabitation agreement and this can act as encouragement for them to consider what they would want to happen if the relationship ends.” But the government is still not very confident. “Cohabitation agreements have yet to be fully tested in court and so it is not entirely clear what weight will be given to them,” says the note.

Canada

Living together is legally recognised as “common-law marriage”. In many cases common-law couples have the same rights as married couples under the federal law of the country. A common-law relationship gets legal sanctity if the couple has been living in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 continuous months,or the couple are parents of a child by birth or adoption,or one of the couple has custody and control of the child and the child is wholly dependent on that person for support.

Ireland

Though living together is legally recognised,news reports from Ireland says the public is up in arms against a new legislation to introduce legal rights for “separated” live-in couples to demand maintenance or share their property with their dependent partners. The scheme will apply to both opposite sex and same-sex unmarried couples who have been living together for three years,or two years in the case of a cohabiting couple with children. The government,with this legislation,intends to provide legal and financial protection for vulnerable and financially dependent cohabitants in the event of death or the break-up of a relationship.

Australia

The Family Law Act states that a “de-facto relationship” can exist between two people of different or the same sex and that a person can be in a de-facto relationship even if legally married to another person or in a de-facto relationship with someone else.

United States

Cohabitation was illegal in all states prior to 1970,but went on to gain status as a common law,subject to certain requirements. The American legal history was then witness to several consensual sex legislations,which paved the way for living together contracts and their cousins,the “prenuptial agreements”. The country later institutionalised cohabitation by giving cohabiters essentially the same rights and obligations as married couples,a situation similar to Sweden and Denmark. Those living together are not recognised as legal parents.