Forty-six per cent. That is the share of people in England and Wales who wrongly assumed, in the 2019 British Social Attitudes survey, that couples who live together form a "common law marriage". The figure is quoted in the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee's report on the rights of cohabiting partners. In households with children, it rose to 55%. And the myth barely moves — back in 2005, it stood at 47%.
There is no such thing as common law marriage in English law. Not after five years, not after twenty. It does not matter how many years you have shared a flat, a mortgage or a child. As the House of Commons Library briefing on cohabitation puts it, cohabitation "gives no general legal status to a couple". Yet around 3.6 million couples were cohabiting in 2021 (up from about 1.5 million in 1996). The Office for National Statistics puts cohabiting couple families at 18% of all UK families in 2023 (families and households bulletin).
Spring is wedding season — and it is often when the question lands on the kitchen table. Friends are sending save-the-dates, someone mentions a civil partnership, and you wonder what, legally, you are waiting for. Here is what each status changes for your rights — tax, home, money, inheritance, children, separation. It draws on GOV.UK and Citizens Advice, with a table to see it all at a glance. This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules (in Scotland, for instance, cohabitants can make limited claims against each other). For anything involving property or children from a previous relationship, a family law solicitor is the person to see.
Marriage, civil partnership, cohabiting: three statuses, three levels of protection
Marriage is the status with the most rights attached — and the most duties. You can marry in England or Wales if you are 18 or over, not already married or in a civil partnership, and not closely related. You give notice at your local register office at least 29 days before the ceremony (which can be religious or civil). A registrar at a register office costs £56. Once married, each partner has a legal duty to support the other financially. That duty can continue after the marriage ends — if there is an agreement or a court order.
A civil partnership is a legal relationship between two people who are not related to each other — open to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples since 2019. The notice process is the same. The ceremony is not. You sign the civil partnership document, you do not need to exchange vows (although you can) — and a civil partnership ceremony cannot be religious. On most of the points covered here — tax, inheritance, the family home, finances when you split up — civil partners are treated in the same way as married couples.
Living together (or cohabiting) requires no paperwork at all. There is no legal definition of it — calling someone your "common-law partner" is simply another way of saying you live together. That freedom has a price. As Citizens Advice notes, you will generally have fewer rights if you are living together than if you are married. On some points, you have none at all.
Cohabiting is not a lighter version of marriage — in law, it is the absence of a status, with a handful of practical effects (on means-tested benefits, for example). Civil partnership, on the other hand, is not a lesser marriage: it is a different ceremony leading to largely the same legal protection.
The comparison table: what changes with your status
This table sums up the main differences described by Citizens Advice's guide to the legal differences between living together and marriage, together with GOV.UK. It describes the default position in England and Wales — no will, no cohabitation agreement, no declaration of trust.
| Area | Living together | Civil partnership | Marriage |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it starts | Nothing to sign | Give notice, then sign the civil partnership document | Give notice, then a civil or religious ceremony with vows |
| Duty to support each other | None | Yes | Yes |
| Income Tax | Taxed separately | Taxed separately, Marriage Allowance possible | Taxed separately, Marriage Allowance possible |
| Inheritance with no will | Nothing, unless property was jointly owned | Inherits some or all of the estate | Inherits some or all of the estate |
| Inheritance Tax between you | No exemption | Exempt | Exempt |
| Right to stay in the home | No automatic right unless your name is on the deeds or tenancy | Home rights, whoever owns it | Home rights, whoever owns it |
| Next of kin | Depends on the organisation | Generally recognised | Generally recognised |
| Father's parental responsibility | If named on the birth certificate (from 1 December 2003) | Automatic for the child's legal parents | Automatic |
| Finances on separation | Property, trust and contract law | Financial order possible (pensions, property, savings) | Financial order possible (pensions, property, savings) |
| Ending it | Move out, no formality | Dissolution through the court, after at least one year | Divorce through the court, after at least one year (£612 application fee) |
Next of kin has no legal meaning — in practice, hospitals and other organisations generally recognise spouses and civil partners, while a cohabiting partner's recognition depends on the organisation.
Civil partners and married couples sit almost side by side. Cohabiting couples stand apart — and the gap is widest precisely when life goes wrong, through a death or a break-up.
Tax: what marriage and civil partnership change
Unlike in some countries, married couples in the UK are taxed as individuals. Each spouse or civil partner keeps their own Personal Allowance and fills in their own return where needed — exactly as cohabiting partners do. The difference lies elsewhere. A few specific allowances are only open to couples who have made it official.
The best known is Marriage Allowance. According to GOV.UK's guide to Marriage Allowance, it lets the lower earner transfer £1,260 of their Personal Allowance to their husband, wife or civil partner. That reduces the partner's tax by up to £252 in the tax year. To qualify, the lower earner normally has an income below the Personal Allowance (usually £12,570) and the other partner pays Income Tax at the basic rate. GOV.UK is explicit — you cannot claim it if you are living together but not married or in a civil partnership. You can also backdate a claim to any eligible tax year since 5 April 2021.
Inheritance Tax is where the real gap opens up. There is normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if you leave everything above the £325,000 threshold to your spouse or civil partner. Any unused threshold can also pass to them when you die. An unmarried partner gets none of this. Anything above the threshold is taxed at the standard rate of 40% — even if you have lived together for thirty years.
Your home: who gets to stay, and on what terms?
For most couples, the home is the biggest shared asset — and it is where the three statuses diverge most sharply. Everything depends on two questions: do you rent or own? And whose names are on the tenancy agreement or the title deeds?
If you rent
Married partners both have the right to live in the matrimonial home, whoever's name is on the tenancy agreement (unless a court orders otherwise). Unmarried partners are in a weaker spot. If you live with a tenant (private or social housing) and they ask you to leave, you will usually have no right to stay. Citizens Advice is clear on this — partners who live together are better off as joint tenants, which gives them equal rights and responsibilities. An existing sole tenancy can be converted into a joint one if the tenant and the landlord agree.
If you own
Married couples and civil partners have what the law calls "home rights" — the right to remain in the home, whoever bought it and whoever pays the mortgage. If your spouse is the sole owner, you can register your home rights with HM Land Registry (or the Land Charges Department if the home is unregistered). Registration can stop a sale going through. An unmarried partner who is not on the deeds may have no right to remain if asked to leave. Without children, the only way to claim long-term rights is usually to prove a "beneficial interest" in court. You would have to show contributions you made — or an understanding you had when the home was bought.
If one of you dies
If you own your home as joint tenants, the surviving partner automatically takes the other's share (married or not). If you are tenants in common, they do not. A cohabiting partner whose name is not on anything has no automatic right to the home. When a sole tenant dies, a surviving partner may have the right to carry on living there. Get legal advice first.
Money, belongings and debts: what is yours, what is shared
When you live together, the general rule is simple. What you owned before stays yours — and whoever buys an item generally owns it. Something bought from a joint account will probably be jointly owned. Gifts between partners usually belong to the person who received them — although that can be hard to prove when a relationship turns sour.
Joint accounts work the same way for everyone. Both of you can use the money (whoever pays in). If a joint account holder dies, the other partner becomes entitled to the balance. A sole account is different. If your partner dies and the account is in their name only, the balance belongs to their estate. You cannot touch it until the estate is settled.
Debts follow the same logic. You are liable for anything in your own name, for debts in joint names and for anything you have guaranteed — married or not. Council Tax is a good example — in England and Wales, both partners are responsible for it, whoever pays. What changes with marriage is the picture on separation. All your assets — sometimes including what you owned before the wedding — can then be taken into account in the financial settlement.
If the question of financial independence is on your mind, our guide to women's financial independence covers the habits worth keeping, whatever your status.
Inheritance: the widest gap of all
If a married partner or civil partner dies without a will, the survivor inherits some or all of the estate under the intestacy rules. With children, the surviving partner takes the first £322,000 and half of anything above that — the children share the rest. And transfers between spouses or civil partners are exempt from Inheritance Tax.
A cohabiting partner inherits nothing under the intestacy rules. Citizens Advice puts it plainly — if one partner dies without leaving a will, the surviving partner will not automatically inherit anything unless the couple owned property jointly. There is one safety net, in section 1 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. It covers someone who lived in the same household as the deceased, as a couple, for the whole of the two years before the death. That person can ask a court for reasonable financial provision. It is a court case, though — at the worst possible moment.
It is staggering that so many people in England and Wales believe in the common law marriage myth.
Law reform has been discussed for years. It has not happened. The Law Commission recommended a scheme of financial relief on separation for cohabitants in 2007. In 2011, it added that some unmarried partners should be able to inherit under the intestacy rules without going to court. According to the House of Commons Library, neither has been put into law. The government elected in July 2024 committed in its manifesto to "strengthening the rights and protections for women in cohabiting couples". In a written answer to Parliament on 7 April 2025, the Ministry of Justice said a public consultation would follow later in the year. Until the law changes, the rules above apply.
Pensions add a further layer. Occupational and personal schemes set their own rules for dependants — some offer benefits to a dependent partner (often through an "expression of wishes" form).
Children: parental responsibility and birth registration
For children themselves, their parents' status changes very little. A child of unmarried parents has the same legal right to inherit from both legal parents, even without a will. Both parents are also financially responsible for their children — married or not. The difference lies in parental responsibility — the right to have a say in major decisions about a child's home, health, education and name.
According to GOV.UK's page on who has parental responsibility, a mother automatically has it from birth. In England and Wales, a father has it if he is married to the mother when the child is born. He also has it if he jointly registers the birth with her (for births from 1 December 2003). Otherwise, an unmarried father can get it through a parental responsibility agreement with the mother — or a court order. The dates differ elsewhere in the UK (4 May 2006 in Scotland, 15 April 2002 in Northern Ireland).
Same-sex couples have their own rules — both partners will have parental responsibility if they were civil partners at the time of the fertility treatment. If you live with your partner's child from a previous relationship, becoming their step-parent through a civil partnership does not give you parental responsibility automatically. You can obtain it through a parental responsibility agreement or a court order. Both married and cohabiting couples can apply to adopt jointly.
Separation: divorce, dissolution or simply moving out
An unmarried couple can separate informally. No court is involved. You agree between you who keeps what — the court only steps in over the care of children if you cannot agree. The catch is money. Neither partner has a legal duty to support the other at the end of the relationship. Voluntary agreements to pay each other maintenance may be difficult to enforce. Child maintenance is different — both parents owe it, whatever their status.
Marriage and civil partnership can only be ended formally, through the court. You cannot apply for a divorce or a dissolution until the marriage or civil partnership has lasted at least a year. The online or postal divorce application then costs £612 (GOV.UK's page on how to apply for a divorce). The heavier process comes with a real protection. As GOV.UK's guidance on money and property when you divorce or separate explains, you and your ex-partner must agree how to divide pensions, property, savings and investments. You might get a share of your partner's pension — or regular maintenance payments. If you agree, a consent order makes the arrangement legally binding. If you cannot, the court can make a financial order.
That financial settlement is perhaps the most underestimated difference of all. It can protect the partner who stepped back from work to raise children. Is one of you considering part-time hours after a baby? That choice weighs on careers, as our piece on the gender pay gap shows. It is a question worth raising before you decide on a status — not after a break-up. Cohabitants, by contrast, must rely on what the Women and Equalities Committee calls "a patchwork" of legal rules spanning property, trusts and contract.
Money conversations rarely go smoothly when they come up in the middle of a crisis. If talking about finances turns into an argument, these couple communication techniques can help you tackle the subject calmly.
Protecting your partner without marrying
Not marrying does not mean leaving your partner unprotected. The first tool is a will — as Citizens Advice notes, unmarried couples need to make wills if they want to be sure the other partner inherits. The second is a cohabitation agreement (also called a living together agreement), which sets out each partner's rights and obligations. If you make one, Citizens Advice recommends adding a declaration of trust, which records how you share your property.
Owning your home as joint tenants means the survivor automatically takes the whole property — tenants in common do not. Pensions need their own paperwork. Filling in an "expression of wishes" form tells the scheme's trustees who you would like to receive any benefits. And, if you are a tenant, a joint tenancy gives you both the same rights. For a cohabitation agreement or a declaration of trust, Citizens Advice suggests seeing a family law solicitor.
Marriage, civil partnership or living together: five questions to decide together
Harriet is 34, an office manager with a three-year-old son. She has lived with her partner for six years. When I spoke to her for this article, she told me she had always thought of them as "basically common-law married". She discovered otherwise when a friend's unmarried partner died without a will. A fortnight later, she and her partner were sitting in a solicitor's office — not to plan a wedding, but to write their wills.
No status is the right one in the abstract. The best one is the one that fits your life, and you can work it out by answering these five questions honestly.
- If one of us died tomorrow, could the other stay in our home? If the answer is no, marriage, a civil partnership or a well-drafted will becomes urgent.
- Will one of us cut back on work for the children? Only marriage and civil partnership give access to a financial settlement on separation.
- Is either of us above the £325,000 Inheritance Tax threshold? Between unmarried partners, the part above it can be taxed at 40%.
- Do we want our finances intertwined? Joint accounts, joint tenancy, tenants in common: each choice has consequences, and each can be changed.
- Do we want a ceremony, and which one? A marriage requires vows and can be religious or civil; a civil partnership is signed, with vows optional and no religious content.
Pick an evening with nothing else on — not the week you exchange contracts on a house, and not straight after a row. Go through the questions with Citizens Advice's guide to living together and marriage open beside you. Then take your notes to a family law solicitor, and ask for the fee in writing before the appointment (a fixed fee, ideally). Own a home together already? Bring the purchase paperwork too — whether you hold it as joint tenants or tenants in common changes what happens if one of you dies.
Frequently asked questions
Is there such a thing as common law marriage in England?
No. However long you have lived together, cohabitation gives no general legal status to a couple. "Common-law partner" is simply another way of saying you live together — with none of the rights of marriage or civil partnership.
Does an unmarried partner inherit if there is no will?
No. Under the intestacy rules, a surviving unmarried partner inherits nothing unless you owned property jointly. There is one exception. A partner who lived with you as a couple for the two years before the death can ask a court for reasonable financial provision — under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
Can we claim Marriage Allowance if we live together?
No. Marriage Allowance — which lets the lower earner transfer £1,260 of their Personal Allowance — is only open to married couples and civil partners.
What is the difference between a civil partnership and a marriage?
In law, very little on the points covered here. The main differences are in the ceremony. A civil partnership is formed by signing a document — vows are optional, and the ceremony cannot be religious. A marriage requires vows and can be civil or religious.
Does an unmarried father have parental responsibility?
In England and Wales, yes if he jointly registered the birth with the mother (for births from 1 December 2003). Otherwise, he can get it through a parental responsibility agreement with the mother or a court order.
How much does it cost to get married at a register office?
A registrar at a register office costs £56 (£104 at a registered religious building; costs may differ at other approved venues). Add the notice fee: each of you gives notice at the register office and pays for it — £42 per person at Westminster City Council, for example.
Can I stay in the home if my unmarried partner owns it alone?
Not automatically. You may have no right to remain if asked to leave. If you have children, a court can transfer the property to you for their benefit (usually for a limited period). Otherwise, you would need to prove a beneficial interest in court.
Sources
- Citizens Advice: Living together and marriage, legal differences
- Citizens Advice: Registering a civil partnership
- Citizens Advice: Living together and civil partnership, legal differences
- Citizens Advice: Who can inherit if there is no will, the rules of intestacy
- GOV.UK: Marriages and civil partnerships in England and Wales
- GOV.UK: Marriage Allowance
- GOV.UK: Inheritance Tax
- GOV.UK: Who has parental responsibility
- GOV.UK: Money and property when you divorce or separate
- GOV.UK: Get a divorce, how to apply
- GOV.UK: Check you can get a divorce
- GOV.UK: Check you can end your civil partnership
- GOV.UK: Making a will, update your will
- Westminster City Council: Giving notice to marry or form a civil partnership, fees
- Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, section 1
- House of Commons Library: "Common law marriage" and cohabitation
- Women and Equalities Committee: The rights of cohabiting partners (2022)
- UK Parliament: Written question 43289 on assets and cohabitation, answered 7 April 2025
- ONS: Families and households in the UK, 2023