Living Together And Marriage: Legal Differences. It’s now prevalent to see couples live together without being married, while this can be legally agreed upon on a contractual basis i.e cohabitation contract through a solicitor, there are legal differences between living together and in marriage, and they can both be backed up by the law.
If you’re in the dark about what this entails, it isn’t hard. Pay rapt attention as it will be explicitly explained in this article, which is the main essence.
What Are The Legal Differences Between Living Together And Marriage?
There are legal differences when it comes to cohabiting and getting married, and there are different legal rights accruing to both. This signifies obligation and rights towards each other, below are the main differences between them both.
These are:
- When it comes to marriage, you can decide whether you want a civil and religious marriage and a marriage certificate will be issued to you.
- When it comes to having bank accounts, the other partner does not have a right to the account unless it’s a joint account, and even if is, if there’s no monetary contribution to the account/upon the death of one, the access is restricted unless otherwise stated or the account is in a joint name. However, the marriage law is different from this because whether it’s a joint account or not, or the other partner dies, it is the exclusive property of both.
- The married and those living together in case they both have children are responsible for the basic needs of the child and important decisions such as religion, name, education, finances e.t.c, until when matured. The only difference is that there’s no full right over them unlike when married such as in the case of appointing a guardian.
- There are complexes and rules governing a child’s nationality depending on whether they’re married or not. It is easier when they are married together.
- When living together, if a couple dies without living a will, the other isn’t liable to it unless it’s a joint account. This does not apply to the law under marriage, unless in very rare cases.
What Are Marriage Rights And Benefits?
The fact remains that living together has its own benefits, but there are advantages that also accrue to getting married which we will briefly look at. This may vary across various states and nations as the law governing them varies.
They are given thus:
- There are tax benefits as married couples can create a family partnership account which enables the dividing of income among the members of a family.
- There are estate benefits as you can have a share in your partner’s estate and acquire a life estate trust and others like marital deduction trusts, QDOT & QTIP which are only available to married partners.
- There is assistance given by the government to married couples like medicare, social security, and loan acquisition.
- Finally, you can enjoy benefits from the employment sector such as taking a family leave, getting insurance through a spouse’s employer, and taking a bereavement leave if a relative or partner dies.
