Legal Wedding FAQs

No, you will not be considered legally married in England and Wales. You will be treated as a cohabiting couple. You will not have the same rights as a legally married couple and will not automatically be Next of Kin. You will not be entitled to inherit automatically and will have no avenue for financial resolution through the family courts if the relationship breaks down. A Nikah conducted abroad will only be legally recognised when you come to the UK if it was legally recognised and registered in the country where it took place. If you are unsure about this, get legal advice from an international family lawyer.

Having a legally valid marriage gives the couple certain rights at the time of a marriage breakdown or if one spouse dies. Generally, ownership of property does not matter when you are legally married, and the family courts can redistribute assets between the parties to meet their needs. If you choose not to have a legal marriage, there are other options available to you. You might want to have a ‘cohabitation agreement’, which sets out your agreement about the division of property, financial assets and child maintenance arrangements if the relationship ends. This is usually drafted by solicitors and if correctly executed, it is legally binding. Another option is a ‘Declaration of Trust’ or a ‘Deed of Trust’ written at the time of buying a property. This is a legally binding document that records the financial arrangements made between the parties about the property. This can be very useful for couples who are not legally married as it can specify the arrangements and rights of both partners if the relationship ends or one partner dies. If you are not in a legally valid marriage, property ownership does matter as the family courts have no jurisdiction to redistribute assets between the couple.

A legal marriage gives the couple certain rights in law regarding property, children, financial assets, taxation and inheritance. These are governed by the relevant legislation. There are no equivalent family law rights for cohabitating couples. You can make a legally binding ‘cohabitation agreement’ or ‘living together agreement’ to formalise certain agreements about your relationship and arrangements for what will happen in the event of a relationship breakdown or the death of one partner. It is best to seek guidance from a family law solicitor.

Parental responsibility entitles you to have a say in important decisions about your child’s life such as their home, health, education, religion, name, money and property and lasts until your child turns 18. A father who is married to a child’s mother will automatically have parental responsibility, whereas a father who is not married to the mother will have parental responsibility only if he is named as the father on the child’s birth certificate or if he gets a court order. Both parents are financially responsible for their children, irrespective of their relationship status. Both parents can be contacted by the Child Maintenance Service to provide financial support for their children, even if they are not named on the birth certificate or in a relationship with the other parent. It is best for parents to have an amicable, informal arrangement for child contact if you are not living together, but if this is not possible, you can apply to the court to make a child arrangements order.

A father can get parental responsibility for his child in any of the following ways: jointly registering the birth of the child with the mother, making a parental responsibility agreement with the mother through the family court, or getting a parental responsibility order from a court.

Married parents can both appoint a guardian for their children in the event of them both dying. Cohabiting parents can separately appoint a guardian to act in the event of their death if they have parental responsibility.

Children have a legal right to inherit from both parents and their families, even if there is no will. This right does not depend on the relationship status of the parents.

The rules around deciding the nationality of a child are complicated and depend on the nationality and immigration status of the parents as well as if they are married. Consult an immigration advisor or solicitor about your specific circumstances.

You are not legally obliged to change your name when you marry. Anyone can change their name at any time, it does not depend on whether you are legally married or not. If you are a married woman who takes her husband’s name, you can continue to use his name after being divorced or widowed if you wish. There is more information about changing your name on the government website: www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll

If your spouse dies, you will inherit according to their will. If they died without a will, you would inherit all or most of their estate, depending on the value of it. You also get a full exemption from having to pay inheritance tax. Cohabiting partners are entitled to certain bereavement benefits. More information and a calculator are available on the government website: https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will/y/england-and-wales www.gov.uk/after-a-death If you are cohabiting and your partner dies, you will inherit only according to their will. You will not be exempt from paying inheritance tax. If they die without a will, you do not have an automatic right to inherit from them. If they die without leaving you enough to live on, you may be able to go to court to claim expenses for your needs from their estate.

‘Next of Kin’ is not a legal term but generally refers to your closest living relative by blood or marriage and is usually the person who will be contacted in the case of an emergency or if medical staff need to liaise with someone if you are in hospital, for example. Different organisations will have varying policies around who they will accept as your ‘Next of Kin’. The general order of priority is spouse, adult children, parents and then siblings, but in some contexts, you may be able to nominate your cohabiting partner or a friend. The ‘Next of Kin’ cannot make decisions about your medical treatment or finances. Only a person with Lasting Power of Attorney has the ability to do so. If one of a cohabiting couple dies, their partner will not be recognised as ‘Next of Kin’ and therefore someone who should automatically inherit from them.

Married couples can separate or divorce. Both spouses have a right to remain in the marital home until the divorce is finalised or a court orders them to leave. Cohabiting couples can end their relationship informally without any legalities. The ability to remain in the family home will depend on ownership.

All individuals are allowed to own property and assets, regardless of their marital status. When a legal marriage breaks down, the court has powers to divide and redistribute property and any financial assets according to what is considered fair in the couple’s circumstances. They begin this assessment from a starting point of equal division. This can ensure that one spouse does not become more economically disadvantaged than the other. When a cohabiting couple separates, there are no such powers for the court to divide assets. There is no shared property unless the parties jointly own the assets legally, for example, by having both of their names on the Title Register of a property or jointly holding bank accounts. Provision can be made for the couple’s shared children and for a transfer of tenancy from joint names to one partner. The rules can be quite complicated and it may be advisable to seek legal advice.

Spouses have a legal duty to support each other and may have to pay maintenance to their ex-spouse after divorce. If the higher earner refuses to support the lower earner, the court can grant a ‘maintenance order’ to arrange for payments to be made for a set period or until one spouse dies or remarries. Cohabiting couples do not have a duty to support each other after the breakdown of their relationship.

For married couples, the law is ‘forward-looking’ and seeks to provide for the needs of both spouses and any children after a divorce. For cohabiting couples, the law is ‘backward-looking, and seeks to establish financial, rather than any ‘home-based’ or caring contributions made and intentions on sharing and ownership. Cohabiting couples have no automatic right to an equal share of property on separation. Complex trust law governs divisions, not family law. More information is available on the Citizen’s Advice website: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/living-together-and-marriage-legal-differences/

Legally married spouses have the right to remain in the rental property, regardless of whose name is on the tenancy unless a court orders it to be transferred into one spouse’s name. Cohabiting partners both have a right to stay in a home where they are named as joint tenants. If one of you wants the other partner to leave or decides to end the tenancy by serving a notice to quit, the other partner may be able to apply to the court for a ‘transfer of tenancy’ order. If you leave the property, you may still be liable to pay for rent and bills if you are still named on the agreement. If only one partner is named on the tenancy, the other partner may have to leave the property if the relationship breaks down. If one partner has been abusive, the other partner may be able to obtain an ‘occupation order’ from the court to prevent the abusive partner from staying at the property for a period of time if they are the named tenant or indefinitely if you are the named tenant.

Legally married spouses have ‘home rights’ and are allowed to stay in the property, regardless of who owns or pays for it. If your name is not on the Title Register of the property, you can register ‘home rights’ with the Land Registry so that your spouse can’t sell the property without your knowledge or agreement until the financial settlement has been resolved between you. The issue of the division of property can be dealt with as part of a financial settlement during a divorce. The court can order the sale of the matrimonial home and decide how the proceeds from the sale are divided among the spouses. For cohabitants, if one of a cohabiting couple is the sole owner of a property, they can ask the other partner to leave and they will have to leave. There may be a way for the partner who does not own the property to register a ‘beneficial interest’ in it, using Trusts Law to show whether there was an agreement or intention to share the property that they relied upon, to their detriment, or if there was any financial contribution made towards buying the property. This is complex and will require legal advice.

Your partner has no right to stay in a home where you are named as the sole tenant unless they get an occupation order from the court. If you want them to leave and they are refusing, you may be able to apply for an injunction, such as an occupation order to force them to leave.

If you are cohabiting with someone and they are the sole tenant, you have no right to remain in the property. If you are joint tenants and you want to stay in the property and your partner is refusing to let you or you want your partner to leave while you remain in the property, you can apply for a court order to allow you to live in the property. If you want to stop your partner from ending the tenancy agreement, you can apply for an emergency injunction. You can apply to the court for a transfer of tenancy under the Family Law Act.

For the purposes of claiming means-tested benefits, cohabiting couples are treated as a family unit, much the same as legally married couples, so that they receive less as a couple than they would as two individuals applying. This is to ensure that there is no advantage or incentive in the welfare system to not being legally married. There is more information about different benefits on the government and Citizen’s Advice websites: www.gov.uk/browse/benefits www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/ In terms of taxation, married couples benefit from a 100% exemption from Inheritance Tax when inheriting from your spouse and get Income Tax Marriage Allowance. If you are cohabiting, you are not exempt from paying any Inheritance Tax due on what you inherit from your partner’s estate.

Spouses are usually awarded pension benefits from state and private or company schemes. Depending on the rules of the scheme, cohabitees can sometimes specify who should benefit from their pension in the case of their death by completing an ‘expression of wishes’ form.