What are my rights if living together but not married?

If a couple live together rather than get married or enter into a civil partnership, the current law treats an unmarried couple as two unrelated individuals. Neither party will be entitled to any financial support or a share in the others assets if the relationship ends.

Unmarried couples have no automatic inheritance rights or claims to their partners pension on death. Therefore, if one partner dies without a Will, the surviving partner has no automatic right to inherit their estate.

An unmarried partner is not automatically considered a next-of-kin in medical situations.

Even if an unmarried couple live together in a home owned by one party, the other party does not automatically have any rights to that property.

An unmarried partner does not have any rights to claim maintenance for themselves. They may however be able to claim child maintenance, if they have children together.