The government will today publish a long-awaited family law consultation to strengthen the financial rights of unmarried couples if they split up.
The Conservative administration came under pressure from family lawyers and politicians to improve legal protections for the now 3.5 million unmarried couples but prioritised work on the law governing marriage and divorce. Labour pledged in its 2024 manifesto to strengthen the rights and protections of women in cohabiting relationships.
Justice secretary David Lammy said: ‘When a relationship comes to an end, each partner should have the support and certainty they need to rebuild their life. We're launching this consultation to make sure our new family law builds a fair system that offers the most vulnerable protection in the event of a breakup, and at a time where the country is facing cost of living pressures.
‘Whether you’ve been left bereaved by the sudden and unexpected death of a partner, or escaped horrific domestic abuse, our laws should work to protect you. These reforms strike an important balance between tradition and modernity. I’m determined that our justice system should work for everyone who needs it.’
Couples will be considered cohabitants if they have lived together for at least three years or share a child.
Courts could give greater weight to the impact of domestic abuse, including controlling or coercive behaviour and economic abuse, when assessing finances for married and cohabiting couples. Unmarried couples would be given automatic inheritance rights if their partner dies without a will. Nuptial agreements would become legally binding.
Practitioner group Resolution, which successfully campaigned for no-fault divorce, has long called for cohabitation reform.
Resolution chair Melanie Bataillard-Samuel said: ‘For too long, unmarried partners have been placed at risk of significant financial hardship and uncertainty when their relationship comes to an end through separation or death. The current law has simply not kept pace with changes in society, and often enables perpetrators of domestic abuse to continue that abuse after a relationship has ended. Today’s announcement is a welcome and significant step towards ending the endemic unfairness for cohabiting couples that Resolution’s 6,500 members see day in, day out.'
Claire Andrews, a family partner at Osbornes Law, said the proposals would 'close a legal loophole that has left some unmarried people who split with their partner destitute, as they had no legal recourse to get a share of the relationship pot'.
On nuptial agreements becoming legally binding, Sital Fontenelle, head of Kingsley Napley’s family team, said: ‘In our experience whether couples are getting married for the first, second or even third time, nuptial agreements are now a standard part of the conversation and wedding related admin. Making them legally binding will benefit those entering into them and will also help to reduce the burden on the family courts which can only be a huge plus.’
The consultation will close on 14 August.
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