Unmarried Couples
**(see also our new extended section on Living Together - just click here)**

More and more couples now live together without getting married, but no matter how long the relationship the law still effectively treats them as separate individuals with no rights or liabilities to each other if the relationship ends (except for same sex couples who have entered into a formal civil partnership).

This has some far reaching consequences for such couples (of whatever sex or combination of sexes), particularly in relation to their home (most people's biggest asset), and what should happen if either party were to die. The majority of couples fail to consider these points until after the relationship has ended.

Unlike married couples, unmarried couples have no basic rights to their partner's property or to maintenance if they split up. Basically what is his is his, what is hers is hers, and what is jointly-owned needs to be divided