There are more folks living as man and wife without being married than ever before, and the trend appears to still be increasing. This has caused a great deal of confusion for numerous individuals because there is a lot of wrong information being floated around concerning the rights of two people who live as man and wife.
Regrettably, many individuals discover too late that while they assumed they were legally entitled to various things, though that doesn’t end up being the situation.
There is at present a landmark situation in the Supreme Court that is raising awareness of this issue. The couple bought a home together in 1985, resided there together, and then split up in 1993. The wife and their two kids have occupied the home and she has independently paid the mortgage since then. The issue being figured out by the Supreme Court is who is entitled to the profits from the house when it is sold.
This is an example of the sort of confusion that surrounds the legal rights of two men and women that live as man and wife. Many of the misunderstandings and problems that take place when individuals break up stem from the fact that they assumed they had legal rights that they don’t really have. Here are a few of the more substantial myths.
The biggest myth that is likely causing a lot of the confusion is that if you live as man and wife, you have a common law marriage. This is entirely untrue and common law marriages haven’t existed since 1753.
One more myth is that if you finance half of the mortgage, it means you own half the house. This is equally not necessarily true. Possession of the house is determined by who holds the title of the residence. If both names are on the title, both people own equal shares of the house. If only one name is on the title, that is the only individual who has the home. It doesn’t matter who actually pays the mortgage.
Individuals are furthermore under the impression that there is no way to secure their interests unless they get married. In reality, there is a document called a “Living Together Agreement” which can help establish the parameters of how the money is being taken care of in the relationship. This works in a very similar manner as a pre-nuptial agreement, without the marriage occurring.
The final big myth that surrounds individuals who live as man and wife is that they think that if one partner passes away, the other will most likely be able to keep on living in their residence. The truth is that there must be a will in place for the other partner to keep the house.