Unmarried couples, cohabitation & financial claims for children

The legal system in many countries often fails to provide the same level of rights and protections to unmarried couples and families as it does to married couples and divorcees.  

It’s important to understand that “common law spouses” do not legally exist, regardless of whether they have children or have lived together. However, the law provides financial and non-financial rights that are valuable and useful. These rights were developed over decades of court decisions rather than from any Act of Parliament. Some have arisen from the implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 and can give rise to claims which are also enforceable against key third parties such as pension trustees, mortgage lenders, trustees and executors of estates.

For those who have children, Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 provides an important set of financial claims which complement the Child Maintenance Service (formerly Child Support Agency) regime. These range from “top up” maintenance payments to help with school and university fees and capital costs such as buying a home to bring your child up in. We obtained the (then) highest financial award to have been made under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 for one of our clients in one of our reported cases, a list of which is available here.

The added complexity of the law in this area means that it is important to obtain professional advice as soon as problems arise. Our role is to advise you on how to obtain the best outcome, irrespective of your situation. Each family is unique, requiring bespoke advice across a variety of areas. For those who have children, we appreciate that achieving a fair and reasonable outcome for your children will be a first priority.

We are experienced in complex financial matters such as child maintenance, contributions towards school fees or university costs, property ownership disputes, planning for the future or a sudden change of circumstances.

We can also help unmarried couples draw up a cohabitation agreement to regulate their financial affairs and property ownership.  

We also value your privacy and have specialists in reputation management who are able to support us when questions involving confidentiality, publicity and the media arise.

Our holistic approach means we have all the expertise you need, locally and internationally, under one roof. This includes property law, tax, trusts and estate planning as well as many other areas.