Raleys Solicitors

A member of the family law team here at Raleys Solicitors is backing calls for the new government to introduce financial rights for couples who cohabit.

Rebecca Baker, head of the Raleys Solicitors family law department, is backing the plea by Resolution, the family lawyers association, for the government to change the law regarding unmarried couples living together.
At present, couples who aren’t married have very little legal protection to ensure that they get an equal share of any assets, including the home, should their relationship end. Rebecca said the issue must be addressed as the number of unmarried cohabiting couples continues to increase. And, she said, there is a risk that one partner may find themselves slipping into poverty following the breakdown of a relationship.
“Many people do not realise that the legal safeguards of marriage do not apply to couples who live together outside wedlock- and that is the case whether children are involved or not,” said Rebecca. “When a marriage breaks down there is a legal process you can go through to ensure assets are divided fairly and to ensure that the future financial needs of children are met. Yet if a relationship ends and the couple were cohabiting, regardless of the length of time they were together, in the vast majority of cases there is either nothing, or very little, one can do to safeguard their financial well-being.”

Rebecca said that women and the children are at particular risk of falling into poverty following a relationship breakdown between unmarried couples. “In the vast majority of relationships, even today, men can often be the main earner. When a relationship out of marriage ends, it is often he woman who faces giving up rights to savings in their ex-partner’s sole name and losing her home because she cannot afford to keep it on herself. Children often remain in the full-time care of their mother, leading to more financial pressures. A relationship breakdown could mean a woman having to make the difficult decision between giving up her job to care for her children or pay for extra childcare to ensure she can stay in work.”

“The law in this area has been overtaken by the changes in our society. There is a fear that introducing new laws to protect unmarried couples financially in the event of relationship breakdown will undermine marriage. Surely the most important issue here, particularly when children are involved, is to ensure both parties can leave a relationship in a financially stable position.”

Chairman of Resolution, David Allison said: “Family break ups are a sad fact of life and the shape of the family has changed. Yet family law reform has been neglected. If the government is serious about building Britain’s future it must change the law.”

Many couples believe the illusion that, once they have lived together for a six month period,  they have the same status of a married couple. This is not true. This persistent urban myth often leads to disappointment when couples separate.

Rebecca Baker of Raleys solicitors was recently asked: “If I had married my ex-partner, would I have been better off?” In this particular situation, the individual had given her partner money towards the mortgage but was never named on the house deeds. She firmly believed that she would be entitled to half of the house because she had lived with him for 10 years. Unfortunately, she was to be disappointed. The reality was that without proof of the payments made she had no right whatsoever to claim against the property. The court would not compensate her for her contribution.

The current cohabitation laws are complicated and the courts struggle to apply family principles as if a couple were married. If a cohabiting couple do separate then there are certain limited applications that can be made. These include:

1. An application under Married Women’s Property Act 1882

This sort of application is possible if a couple were engaged and the engagement was terminated within the last 3 years. The application enables a party to make a claim in relation to a jointly owned home and other property including the household contents and the engagement ring. However, these days such an application is unusual.

1. An application under the Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996

This application is open to a couple whether or not they were ever engaged. An application can be made to establish an individual’s interest in the property or to order that the property is sold, if it cannot be agreed who is to remain in the property and buy out the other party’s share. It would be appropriate to make this application if the property is held in one party’s sole name and the other party has contributed to the acquisition of the property, either by paying or contributing towards the initial deposit when the property was purchased or by making direct contributions to the mortgage. Alternatively, it could also be a useful application if one party has carried out significant improvements to a property which increases its value.

The position of a cohabiting couple can be contrasted with that of a married couple in a number of ways. In particular, all the married couple’s assets will be taken into account as part of the matrimonial pot. In contrast, if a couple merely live together, the only assets that will be divided are joint assets. Assets in one party’s sole name will often be untouchable unless the other party can establish that they have made a significant contribution to that asset. This requires proof which is often too difficult to obtain particularly as couples in the first flush of romance rarely decide to record their financial intentions. Consequently, there is often no sufficient proof available.

As a result of these issues, the law is currently undergoing reform. In July 2007 the Law Commission produced a report dealing with the financial consequences where a couple are cohabiting and highlighting these potential problems. Unfortunately, it will be some time before any improvements are made law.

In the meantime, practitioners can only provide individuals with basic advice to bear in mind prior to entering into a relationship. If you are going to contribute to any property in monetary value, obtain the advice of a solicitor first. They will talk to you about your options which can include owning a joint property in unequal shares and entering into a trust deed to record this fact. If you wish to preserve any contributions made, the best thing to do is enter into a cohabitation agreement recording your intentions. If you spend any money improving your partner’s property then keep all receipts and, ideally, obtain a valuation before and after any work is carried out.

The contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. Raleys Solicitors cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article.

Baroness Deech, a leading UK family lawyer who is also the chairman of the Bar Standards Board is expected to speak this week in a lunchtime lecture about the concept of marriage within English law and whether it is clear, relevant and up-to-date.

Baroness Deech is expected to argue that the English law’s concept of marriage, “the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others” is heavily based on traditional Christian values and that recent changes to family law and conventional family life have made this description less relevant than ever.

The basis of Lady Deech’s argument is that as recently as fifty years ago, homosexuality itself was still illegal whereas nowadays same sex couples have the right to hold civil unions which are closely comprable to marriage, adopt children, be named on the birth certificates of children born through artificial insemination and may soon be allowed to hold civil unions in religious buildings.

The accuracy and relevancy of English law’s concept of marriage has not only be called into question by society’s increasing acceptance of homosexuality, but also by other shifting social attitudes. Whilst same sex civil unions negated the ‘between one man and one woman’ part, relaxing attitudes to adultery have called into question the ‘one‘ part.

Similarly, the fact that few people bat an eyelid about divorce and that it is so easy to obtain these days has rather put a question mark over the ‘lifelong‘ part too. So Baroness Deech’s view that changing family law has resulted in the law’s concept of marriage becoming inaccurate has a pretty sound basis.

Marriage is more different and less practised today than ever before. Attitudes and lifestyles have changed. As Baroness Deech puts it, ” religion is a waning force, women have financial independence, there is state support for lone parents, children are no longer classified as illegitimate, divorce is easy and there is no recrimination over sex and birth outside of wedlock,” so perhaps the legal definition of marriage should come up for review.

You can read the full story here. We’d love to know your views.

The number of family law disputes involving children in January 2010 was up 32% on figures the same month in 2009, a leading divorce advisory service has said.

Divorce.co.uk and other divorce advisory services have pointed out that there is normally a sharp increase in cases of child custody, divorce and child support disputes in the couple of months following the stressful Christmas and New Year period, but that this increase is above average.

Family law disputes following children typically increase shortly after Christmas because of the pressures that the festive season puts on families. Many separated parents try to increase the amount of time they spend with their child over the school holidays and this can often lead to resentment by the other parent.

The recession and money worries have also contributed to the rising family law disputes. It is claimed that extra spending at Christmas leads to resident parents feeling justified in asking the other parent for increased child support. This often leads to arguments.

Family law disputes are distressing at any time of year and at Raleys Solicitors we pride ourselves on our understanding approach to your dispute. However, we also recommend that anyone who is divorcing or embroiled in a family law dispute visits http://www.divorce.co.uk for divorce advice.

Many a tabloid story has told us in excruciating detail the legally and morally questionable tricks employed by the super rich when divorcing to save their fortunes from their ex-spouses, but we rarely hear about actual legal loopholes used, maliciously or otherwise in divorces. Well that’s because they don’t happen so often, but people should be sure to seek legal advice from a well qualified family law solicitor when divorcing to avoid losing out due to legal loopholes.

Let’s take a recent high profile example of a divorcing couple that has appeared in the news and cut their long story short. The middle aged couple were British, had married in the UK but now lived in France following the husband’s long and successful business career. When the wife discovered her husband had been having an affair, she filed for divorce.

It’s not clear whether she tried to file for divorce in the UK first, but either way a couple must have been resident in the UK for twelve months before filing for divorce here, so it wouldn’t have been an option. The story ended with her filing for divorce in the French courts, meaning that her husband’s UK based pension worth over £1m was never taken into account. Add that to the fact that few other countries’ courts look as favourably on women as UK courts do and she was left with a significantly smaller divorce payout than she would have had she divorced in the UK.

The moral of the story is to know your rights, consulting a family law solicitor is the only way to guarantee you do not miss any loopholes which may alter the outcome of the proceedings.

Check out our new family law video made at animoto.com!

Raleys Solicitors Family Law Video

Sports relief is a great way for people to do their bit for charity whilst getting involved with fun activities. The funds raised by everyone who raises money for Sports Relief goes to helping the poor in the UK and around the world. In the UK, many of the poorest and most disadvantaged people come from broken homes and have been through the family law system for their entire lives.

You can help them by getting involved and running just 1 mile!

Do your bit, we will be too.

For more information about Sports Relief click here.

Family law is a complex sector of the law encompassing a number of different issues from child custody to divorce to inheritance tax. Some of the issues contained in family law are necessary in order to gain the best outcome for innocent parties, especially when children are involved. However, some of the laws surrounding the family are just plain obvious, and should’t we already be following them as part of our moral code?

This issue has been raised recently because there is a new proposal circulating that the law should force children and grandchildren to care for grandparents. The argument is based on the fact that a high percentage of grandparents will care for their grandchildren and provide financial security for them, especially as mothers as well as fathers are working longer hours. This new law is seen as a way to ensure that grandparents are repaid for their care and not left to suffer in old age. However, shouldn’t’ our morals already be telling us to look after our own parents and grandparents? No person would knowingly allow their elders to suffer financially or emotionally without doing as much as they could to help. And if they do leave them without care, these people are animals.

Although there have been a number of instances where family members kill other family members, most people will automatically care for their parents and grandparents. Do we really need to make it into a law? For more information on this issue why not have a look at this article.

Divorce is never a nice experience, even when the decision to end a marriage is mutual. However there are episodes in some famous divorce cases when dirty tricks have been used by the lawyers and one or both spouses in order to get the upper hand. The famous chef Marco Pierre White  separated from his wife after seven years of marriage. During the divorce case, White claims that his wife and her team of lawyers intercepted his mail and personal documents in an attempt to gain information about his finances. The chef is now taking the divorce lawyers to court so that he can sue them for these dirty tricks.

For more information on this case you can read an interesting article in the London Evening Standard. Click here to read it.

But remember, not all divorce lawyers will stoop to such levels in order to get results for their client. Every solicitor at Raleys prides themselves on integrity, skill and a knowledge of the law so that these tricks are not needed anyway.

More and more couples are going down the path of the quickie divorce in order to end their marriage as speedily as possible. This new phenomenon which was rare five to ten years ago has been blamed on the celebrity fashion to split up and divorce within a matter of days, not months. And expert relationship councillors and lawyers have lambasted the trend for quick divorces as a waste of money and often psychologically and emotionally damaging.

It would be wrong to say that every couple that tie the knot should never be allowed to divorce no matter how bad their marriage is, sometimes the truth is that no matter how hard you try, two people’s differences cannot be reconciled. However, there is a high number of couples that decide to get a quickie divorce only to realise that they made a mistake and would prefer to talk through their problems, fix them and stay together.

Many notable family  lawyers have had clients that have paid thousands of pounds to divorce before they have even sat down and talked through the reasons behind one party or both involved wanting to get out of the marriage. On many occasions it is simply a case of airing your issues, being listened to and changing your actions so that you can get on with your lives together, happily again.

But this kind of action should be done before the divorce is granted. Your family lawyer should advise you to seek marriage counselling or at least help you to talk to each other before you go to court. Through this process you might find that you would like to give your marriage another go. And if one party is still determined on a divorce, at least it helps the other to understand why their partner is leaving them.

When celebrities can announce their split to the national media and be divorced less than a month later, it does not exactly help to concrete the belief that marriage is for life, ’til death us do part’. With such a casual approach to their personal lives, celebrities are often seen to go off the rails after their divorce, neglecting their children, rebounding with any Tom, Dick or Sally (Because it is both men and women that act like this) and generally portraying bad behaviour. This has led to a more casual approach in society’s view of marriage, and makes divorce a signature on a piece of paper, not an emotional struggle that is difficult for all parties involved.