Information bank

Cohabiting

The law on cohabitation deals with the obligations and rights of two people who live together as a couple, but without registering a civil partnership or marriage.

Since the 1980s, mixed-sex couples who cohabit have been granted some of the legal protections and obligations afforded to married couples. Since 2000, these laws have gradually been extended to also apply to same-sex couples who cohabit.

What the law says

The law gives same-sex cohabiting couples almost all the same protections and obligations given to mixed-sex cohabiting couples. These include:

Being recognised as your partner's nearest relative
Being able to take over the tenancy of your partner's rented house if they die and you were living there
Being able to claim compensation for the death of one's partner in a criminal act, and the right to claim damages from a person causing the death of one's partner in a wrongful act.
Protection from domestic abuse.
A foreign cohabiting partner of a UK citizen can usually get permission to reside with their partner in the UK, but only after they have already cohabited as a couple for two years.
If an employer gives fringe benefits to a mixed-sex cohabiting partner of an employee, the employer must give the same benefits to a same-sex cohabiting partner of an employee
For means-tested state benefits, such as income support, job seekers allowance, tax credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit etc., both partners' incomes are taken into account in calculating the benefit.
A cohabiting partner can apply to court to inherit a portion of their partner's property, if their partner dies without a will.
If a cohabiting couple split up, it is possible to apply to court for an order for financial provision from the ex-partner, although compensation is limited to financial disadvantage caused by the cohabitation, and the costs of looking after a mutual child.
When the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill comes into effect sometime in 2007, a cohabiting same-sex couple will be able to apply to jointly adopt a child, and lesbians and gay men will be able to apply to adopt their partner's child as a 'step-parent'.

These legal rules are rather weaker than the protections and obligations the law gives civil partners and married couples.

What is still missing from the law

There are two areas of law in which same-sex cohabitants are still treated differently from mixed-sex cohabitants. The Fostering of Children (Scotland) Regulations 1996 allow a child to be fostered with a mixed-sex cohabiting couple, but not with a same-sex cohabiting couple.

It is expected this discrimination in the fostering legislation to be removed by the Scottish Executive when the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 7th December 2006, comes into effect, sometime in 2007.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 specifies that if a cohabiting mixed-sex couple receive artificial insemination treatment at a licensed fertility clinic, they are both regarded as the legal parents of the child born as a result. If a same-sex women couple receive treatment, only the woman who becomes pregnant is regarded as the child's parent.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act is reserved to Westminster, so cannot be amended by the Scottish Parliament. It has recently been under review by the UK Government, who published a draft of a bill amending the law in May 2007.

More information

There is information about the rules which currently apply when a foreign same-sex (or mixed-sex) cohabiting partner of a UK citizen wants to live with their partner in this country, on the Immigration and Nationality Directorate website.

It should be noted that these fairly strict rules do not apply to citizens of the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein) or to citizens of Switzerland, all of whom have a much broader right to live and work in the UK.