Common Law Marriages Don’t Exist? Actually yes they do. But you are not in one!
First of all, any lawyer will agree that every adult in England and Wales ought to make a Will. There simply is no downside to this.
When there is a Will then most cases of argument or dispute after the death of a person with no will (an intestate estate) would be avoided. All of those cases involve one side or more often both sides of the argument saying “I know what s/he would have wanted”.
Ask yourself – do you want your friends and family falling out after your death? When they will be grieving, emotionally fragile, and wanting to honour your memory by doing “what you would have wanted”? But all diametrically opposed to the opinion of other family members as to what you did actually want.
Just make sure you have already told them, by writing your will. But of course you have to do it now.
The arguments against doing so range from a fear of death, a fear of discussing death, a fear of lawyers’ fees, or a feeling that -my friends and family won’t fall out.
OK, it’s your right to make a bad decision.
Or another reason, which I have discussed before, is that “my partner and I have lived together for yonks, we are in a common law marriage, and my estate will all go to him/her when I die”. See my blog link here
Googled fact – According to Wikipedia 51% of people in England And Wales polled in 2008 believed that co-habitants had the same legal rights between themselves as do spouses.
They believe that in the event of a break-up,or after one of them dies, their money would be split in just the same way as if they were married because they think they have a “Common Law Marriage”.
But that is not true and any lawyer will tell you so.
And most lawyers, myself included until last week, will tell you that in England there’s no such thing as a Common Law Marriage.
So, Link Here, what did I know?
This bulletin from the British High Commission in Singapore explains when the British State will accept that a Common Law Marriage exists, and it turns out that it can exist, but only in extremely rare cases, and most of the documented cases relate to wartime.
Perhaps in a war film scenario, imagine the brave Spitfire pilot is shot down and is rescued by the beautiful French resistance fighter: hiding him in her father’s barn for several months they fall in love. Before his final dash for England they decide to “marry”. Perhaps a small secret ceremony attended by trusted friends.
Clearly, they cannot ask the invading German authority to conduct a formal marriage. But yes, the British State would accept their claim after the war, that they were spouses.
So yes, a Common Law Marriage. Not at all the same thing as just, “never getting around to it”.
Could there be a Common Law Marriage today when, thanks be, we are not at war?
I have thought of one possible scenario within the rules of the Singapore letter; can you think of more?
Imagine two British women or men fall in love with each other. They live in Singapore where same sex marriage is impossible and homosexuality is illegal. They consider themselves to be married, but cannot formalise it. Even then presumably they could just fly to UK and get married, though they might argue that the very fact of owning the marriage certification etc. is dangerous to them Singapore. Or maybe, one of them is in jail, so they can’t both get home to UK?
Because the criteria is really strict. But in my imagined example:-
- English Common Law prevails -Yes in Singapore TICK
- Both of Legal age and sound mind TICK
- Local Law Cannot be applied TICK
- British Nationals have not subjected themselves to the law of Singapore -presumably not, since they wish to marry and that’s not allowed there TICK
I don’t suppose this is going to keep me and Louise busy with a stream of same-sex common law marriages to notarise, but, being a Notary Public and therefore a bit strange, I do find this sort of unusual/historical aspect of the Law to be quite fascinating.
And any excuse to play this song Link Here
Please do contact us whenever you need Notarial certification or Legalisation for your Documents– at http://www.atkinsonnotary.com – or phone us on 0113 816 0116 (internationally 0044 113 8160116)
atkinsonnotarypublic 