It's widely believed that if a couple live together for a certain period of time this gives them the same rights and liabilities as a married couple - the so-called 'Common Law Marriage'. This is a myth and simply not true.

Moreover, if you live with a Partner without marrying them, you do not acquire ANY legal right to their possessions or property. This can have unfortunate consequences, as the following case-studies show.

Each of them had taken out an insurance policy on their own lives before they got together.
After they started living together Amy continued to pay the monthly premiums on her policy and
Ben continued to pay the monthly premiums on his policy. Ben was then struck down by cancer.

Amy gave up her job to nurse him at home, passing up an opportunity to become a photographic
model for catalogues. She knew that Ben's death was inevitable but she stuck with him because
she loved him. When Ben inevitably died it was not Amy who benefited from Ben's insurance
policy - it was Ben's father as his closest relative.

They each owned their own house as a result of their respective divorce settlements.
They decided to live together at Christine's house and Dennis sold his house and they moved in
together. Most of the money that was raised from the sale of Dennis' house was used to buy
new furniture at Christine's house, and to pay for some building work there which increased its
value.

Some five years later Christine and Dennis decided to go their separate ways - but should
Dennis get anything when they split up? After all, most of the proceeds of the sale of his
house had been invested in improving Christine's home - but it was HER house, not his.

He asked her to marry him. He promised that she would shortly be moving into his house.

Meanwhile he persuaded Esther to buy him a new car and a lot of new furniture for their
proposed 'love-nest' and to redecorate it so that it would be a lovely place for them to live together.

However, Frank kept putting off the date when Esther moved in to live with him, and also the
date of the marriage, so that eventually their relationship 'fizzled out' and came to nothing. Could
Esther get back any of the money that she had paid out?