Cohabitation

Cohabitation

Statutory definitions of cohabitation

Cohabitants are treated differently from married couples or civil partners, in particular in their property rights, their rights in relation to children and their rights on their partner’s death. There are various and varying statutory definitions of ‘cohabitation’, for example:

•
references to parties living ‘as husband and wife’ or ‘as if they were civil partners’, eg in paragraph 10C of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Child Support Act 1991 (CSA 1991) and section 62 of the Family Law Act 1996
•
references to whether a couple are living in the same household, eg in CSA 1991, s 3, in its definition of 'non-residential parents' and sections 1(1A) and 1(1B) of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (I(PFD)A 1975), regarding eligibility to apply under I(PFD)A 1975
•
sections 49(1) and 144(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 permit an application for an adoption order to be made by 'a couple or one person' (provided that the conditions specified in that section are fulfilled) and 'a couple' is defined as a married couple, two people who are civil partners of

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