The Law and Living Together as Unmarried Parents

Cohabitation Agreements

Living together is a big step to take in a relationship, and increasingly, it’s something more and more couples are doing before even getting married. This is known as cohabiting.

Something more and more unmarried couples are doing is creating a Cohabitation Agreement. This is also sometimes known as a Living Together Agreement and is legally binding in England and Wales.

For some people, this can be an essential agreement to have, especially if a couple has children and shares finances and assets. By having a Cohabitation Agreement or a Living Together Agreement, unmarried couples are therefore able to protect their assets and finances and figure out custody of their child or children, should they one day separate.

Many people may feel worried or daunted by the idea of putting a Cohabitation Agreement or Living Together Agreement in place. Couples may feel the whole process is complex and difficult, and you might not want to think about breaking up, which is completely understandable. But, if it does unfortunately happen, you’ll feel all the better for having put a legally-binding agreement in place.

A Cohabitation Agreement helps protect things like:

• The interests of your children, should the relationship end, ensuring they are adequately provided for
• Managing financial expectations – Formalising what is expected from each of you financially
• Reducing conflict – If the relationship does end, there’ll be fewer things to argue over
• Shares in Property – If you jointly own a property, you can divide the equity straight down the middle, or have it in writing exactly how much of the property is your share.

Our Family Law Solicitors can help you draw up a Cohabitation Agreement so that if you separate, the interests of you, your partner and your children will be protected.

Parental Responsibility for Unmarried Fathers/Same-Sex Partners

It’s unlikely that you have any Parental Responsibility if you are a father or same-sex partner who was never married to the child’s mother and do not appear on the child’s birth certificate.

Parental Responsibility means you have the right to be involved in decisions such as the child’s education and medical care. One way to obtain Parental Responsibility is to re-register your child’s birth in joint names.

So, it’s clear that Parental Responsibility means you play a real role in your child or children’s life and the decisions that affect their experiences. Unfortunately, if you’re an unmarried father or same-sex partner with a child, you won’t legally have Parental Responsibility. This means that if there is some decision that needs to be made in your child or children’s life, legally, you won’t have a say in it.

That’s why it’s a really good idea to figure out if you have Parental Responsibility, and if you don’t, it might be worth looking into how to get it. This will mean you’ll be able to have a proper say in what happens to your child and the decisions that affect their experiences and the course of their life. If you don’t have Parental Responsibility and you split up with your partner, it’s unlikely you’ll have a say in what happens with your child or children.

If you’re unsure if you have Parental Responsibility, speak to one of our Family Solicitors, who will be happy to offer initial advice.

We can explore your options with you, particularly in cases where you and your partner both have Parental Responsibility but are locked in a dispute that needs to be decided by an Order of the Court. This is often the case where parents cannot agree on child arrangements after separation.

Child Maintenance if Unmarried Parents Separate

Whether you are married or unmarried, as parents, you share responsibility for providing for your children. Therefore, applications for Child Maintenance are open to both married and unmarried people. This way, Child Maintenance doesn’t discriminate between married and unmarried parents. This is beneficial, because it means that regardless of your marital status, if yourself and your partner split up and you end up caring for your shared child or children, you will still get Child Maintenance.

Child Maintenance is a way of making sure that the household the child or children of a separation or divorce lives in is financially stable. In addition, with Child Maintenance, both parents are made to recognise and contribute to the financial responsibilities of having a child, as this is only fair and logical.

When an unmarried couple with children splits up, they will have to figure out who takes the child and when – but the thing that is concrete and unchanging is that the parent who does not live with the child will pay Child Maintenance. This ensures that the child is still as financially supported as they were when the couple lived together.

Child Maintenance applications are assessed and enforced by The Child Maintenance Service. The first step in getting Child Maintenance is to contact them to arrange Child Maintenance.

If you need help with arranging Child Maintenance, you can get legal help and advice from our Family Law and Divorce Solicitors. We can guide you through the processes, from the information you need to give and forms you need to fill in, to any deadlines you’ll have to stick to when arranging Child Maintenance.

How We Can Help You

With so much to think about as parents, let alone, unmarried parents, legal protection can fall under the radar.

Our specialist Family Solicitors can explain everything from Parental Responsibility to obtaining a Cohabitation Agreement and are always happy to help you understand your rights, and protect the interests of your children.

We understand that if you’re going through a break up or split with your unmarried partner, this can be difficult, especially if you share a child or children with this person. But, it’s important to realise that even though you aren’t married, you still have rights when separating, based on this area of the law, and especially if you’ve put an Agreement in place. We can help take some of the weight off your shoulders.

If you’ve created a Cohabitation Agreement or a Living Together Agreement, we can help you look through the Agreement you’ve made and its terms, to help you understand what your rights are and how you can go forward with splitting finances, assets and figuring out Child Maintenance.

But, if you haven’t created an Agreement, we can still help you work through arranging Child Maintenance. We can look through your case and empower you with the information you need in order to go forward with your case and arrange Child Maintenance, with the right forms and to the right deadlines. This way, we’ll help make sure your case goes as smoothly as possible.

At Simpson Millar, we’re here to help take some of the stress away from dealing with a messy break up if there are children involved. We can aid you in working out your rights and how you can go forward in terms of splitting assets, finances and custody of your child or children, as well as Child Maintenance.