“The number of families and households in the UK has continued to rise in line with the growth of the UK population over the past decade. However, the ways that people live have been changing. Married and civil partnered couple families remain the most common family type, but this is a declining trend in the UK, as more people choose to live together before, or without, getting married. While average household size has remained stable over the last two decades, the proportion of people who live alone has increased and multifamily households, despite making up a very small proportion, has been the fastest growing household type over this period.”

The above statistician’s comment is taken from the most recent household data (2020) released by the Office for National Statistics. The content will not surprise family lawyers who are dealing with increasing numbers of enquiries from cohabitees alongside prospective divorcees. Happily, as many enquiries are about the commencement of cohabitation as they are about separation. There are a myriad of reasons as to why a couple may prefer cohabitation to marriage ranging from the personal to the practical to the financial.

No doubt in the last 18 months the Covid pandemic has particularly accelerated decision making about living together. In March 2020, many couples had to make unexpectedly sudden choices about their relationships or face an unknown - and what turned out to be lengthy - period apart. To add to the pressure, some couples also had to make quick decisions about location: whether to remain in a city or move into the country; whether to return to family homes or sit it out where they had settled. There are those now reflecting on the success of their impromptu decisions who want to properly plan longer term committed living arrangements.

It is now more widely known than ever before that cohabitees have less legal rights than spouses or civil partners. The ‘common law husband/wife’ myth is (thankfully) disappearing, and individuals are now actively exploring legal rights and options before cohabitation rather than after separation. Cohabitation remains a ‘grey area’ of law with uncertain and what sometimes seem morally unfair outcomes based primarily on property ownership and financial contributions, and expanded upon and interpreted by subsequent case law. Unlike spouses, cohabitees do not automatically strengthen their legal claims the longer the relationship goes on. This can sometimes lead to very modest financial rewards at the end of very long cohabitations.

Encouragingly, more couples - particularly younger couples - contemplating cohabitation are starting to think about forward planning to avoid unfair outcomes if they separate. Open dialogue between couples seems to be increasing with each seeking appropriate legal protection of their finances. This can be simple to achieve with a declaration of trust and/or cohabitation agreement (the purposes of which I shall explore in a following article). Rapidly increasing house prices no doubt play their part in financial safeguarding measures - it can be hard enough to get onto the property market in the first place as a couple, let alone individually following separation. There has also been an uptick in recent years of deposit contributions from Bank of Mum and Dad. This can also often encourage legal paperwork to ensure those monies are ring fenced in a later separation.

Legal reform for cohabitation law has long been proposed and we are getting closer with the Cohabitation Rights Bill 2020 inching through Parliament. Cohabitation rates and multifamily households (which includes friends living together) are only likely to increase as property prices and living expenses remain high. It is more apparent than ever that the Government needs to move faster to keep up with the statistics and in the meantime family and property lawyers offer what legal protection they can.