Cohabitation in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, the law fails to recognise any couples living together as being in a legal partnership and treats them as individuals, granting limited legal protection and fewer rights than married couples, or couples who form a civil partnership. It is important that cohabitating couples understand their legal rights and any issues that may arise should the relationship break down.

Unlike the Republic of Ireland, there are no pre-requisite grounds that need to be satisfied in order to be classified as cohabitants; if two people live together in a romantic relationship, but remain unmarried, they are considered to be a cohabiting couple, regardless of the length of time that the arrangement has been in place.

Property

When cohabitants live together, the property belongs to whomever has legal ownership, which is whomever is named on the title deeds. Therefore, if the cohabiting parties purchased the property together and both are named on the deeds, then they continue to jointly own the property upon separation and both are jointly and independently liable for the continued payments of the mortgage, even if only one of them continue to live in the property. If either party fails to make repayments and the mortgage falls into arrears, this could have serious consequences to the parties’ credit ratings and the property could be at risk of being repossessed.

Unmarried cohabitees can seek an Order for sale, partition, or a declaration of their beneficial interests under the Partition Act 1868. The power of the Court under this legislation can include enforcing a charge against a co-owner under the Property (NI) Order 1997.

It may be possible for a cohabitee who is not named on the title deeds, and has no rights to the property, to establish an equitable interest, if this party is able to evidence significant contribution towards the property, for example payments towards the mortgage repayments or home renovations, with the express intention that it was a contribution towards acquiring ownership. The party can attempt to obtain a beneficial interest through the courts, which could entitle them to a beneficial share in the property and the legal right to occupy.

Assets on Separation

As opposed to the assets of a married couple being classed as 'matrimonial assets' and being split between the parties on the breakdown of the marriage, in the case of the cohabiting couple, the assets will be split per their legal ownership. Any asset belonging to either party will remain their property after the separation. It is very rare that one cohabitee will have legal claim over the other cohabitee's property (such as pension or other assets) regardless of when these were acquired, or the length of the relationship. It would be advisable for cohabitees to reach an agreement between themselves upon separation, or alternatively, to have a Cohabitation Agreement in place from the offset, as to how the assets should be split if the parties were to separate.

This advice is written by Clare McEleney, Family & Child Law Solicitor.

If you would like to contact Clare, please click here.