What legal rights do unmarried couples have?

In England & Wales, unmarried couples have significantly fewer legal rights compared to married couples or civil partners.

Despite popular belief, there is no such thing as common law marriage, regardless of how long a couple has lived together.

The law treats unmarried partners as separate individuals rather than a couple.

Unmarried couples have no automatic inheritance rights or claims to their partner’s 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 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 rights to that property.

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

An unmarried father will only have parental responsibility if he is named on the birth certificate.