Property Law Relating to Cohabitation - Assignment Example

Course Date Should the law continue to treat married couples differently from unmarried cohabitants in property disputes?... Instead, post-separation property disputes between unmarried cohabitants are resolved by reference to the law of trusts (George, 2008).... Introduction The division of property following separation continues to treat married couples and unmarried cohabitants differently.... hellip; Post-separation property disputes for married couples are dealt with under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (as amended) (Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, Section 25)....

nbsp;… There is likewise no necessity for legislative pronouncements considering that there are ordinary legislations regulating cohabitation relationships such as property rights, contracts, agreements, wills and inheritance, custody and support of children and other related laws that may be applicable should the couple decide to separate.... It would cohabitation within the purview of the State.... Couples who marry or enter into civil partnership are guaranteed equal rights and State protection such as but not limited to mutual support and duty of care, possession of joint property without need of an agreement; any pre-nuptial agreement may be set aside by the courts to divide their property in case of separation; wills executed prior to marriage or constitution of civil partnership are automatically revoked except when the will is executed in consideration of the marriage or civil partnership; the surviving spouse or civil partner is not liable to pay inheritance tax on an estate inherited when they are domiciled in the United Kingdom (UK), the surviving spouse or civil partner shall inherit part or all of the estate of a spouse who dies intestate or without a will depending on the domicile of the deceased; the surviving spouse is paid a proportion of their deceased spouse's pension and other rights and interests recognized by the UK....

The tendency of cohabitation is rising even though the system itself is unstable in comparison with the institution of marriage.... The hub of family law has exhibited considerable variation.... The alterations that have taken place during the past twenty to thirty years in the field of family law have depicted a diminution in the focus placed on the tribulations of married couples.... Although some experts are of the opinion that there has been a transformation of family law into domestic relations law4 it would be unnecessary to modify the rubric recounting this part of the law if the contention that the very concept of what constitutes a family is itself changing5....

However, the Law Commission opined that this facility should not be extended to a cohabitation relation that breaks down, because it does not accord the same importance to cohabitation that it does to marriage3.... The consultation paper cohabitation: The Financial Consequences of Relationship Breakdown, published in May 2006 by the Law Commission, examined whether cohabiting couples were justified in claiming monetary easement and recommended the establishment of better remedies for… Some of the remedies suggested were the transfer of property, periodical payments, lump sum payments and pension sharing that the courts had to award on a discretionary basis....

When the case White v White was decided by the House of Lords many academics and legal commentators saw this as marking a revolutionary change in the law relating to matrimonial property and financial provision upon divorce.... In particular, this paper critically reviews the White decision and considers the extent to which the decision has actually culminated in a revolutionary change in the law relating to matrimonial property and financial provision on divorce....

hellip; The emergence of many forms of cohabitation and partnership often brings us the question of what is a family.... The objective of this essay "The Foundation of Family law" is to discuss whether the legal institution of marriage remains fundamentally important in family law, or whether the law is based upon a wider concept of the family considering the tendencies of modern society.... ection 1 Family law Act 1996 so provides that “the institution of marriage is to be supported....

The Commission had reached this conclusion because it did not accord the same importance to cohabitation that it did to marriage.... In England, Wales and Northern Ireland cohabitation rights come under the purview of general property law.... This research will begin with the statement that one of the main differences between marriage and cohabitation comes to the fore in respect of financial provisions.... Certain legal mechanisms deal with moveable property in cases where a cohabitation relationship breaks down....

53(1) of the law of Property Act 1925, to be in writing.... (Open law, 1971) Understanding Constructive trust in this context is very important, as it forms the basis for the subject.... Dowden that in Pettitt v Pettitt [1970] AC 777, Gissing v Gissing [1971] AC 886 and Lloyds Bank v Rosset[1991] 1 AC 107…the dispute was between a husband (or his secured creditor) and a wife; the property in question was in single legal ownership; and the matter relied on by the non-owner claimant was no more than relatively trivial work and … In Gissing itself, Lord Reid (at 896F) Lord Morris (at 898B) and Viscount Dilhorne (at 901A) simply repeated the formula which appears in section 53(2) of the law of Property Act 1925, "resulting, implied or constructive trust....