What’s a “common law partner”?

It’s a car insurance related. My GF and I have lived together for nearly 2 years. Are we common law partners?

Cheers.
jon

no such thing…

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/governmentcitizensandrights/yourrightsandresponsibilities/dg_10026937

Yes.

But the term technically has no legal status, IIRC

IIRC there’s no such thing, I just assumed it meant co-habbiting but not married.

I know there’s no such thing as common law marriage and CL husbands or wives but why would car insurance use such a term and what does it mean for car insurance?

I had a look at that directgov page but that doesn’t make it any clearer!

The term “common-law marriage” has been used in England and Wales since the 1960s to refer to unmarried, cohabiting heterosexual relationships.[14] However, this is merely a social usage. The term does not confer on cohabiting parties any of the rights or obligations enjoyed by spouses or civil partners. Unmarried partners are recognised for certain purposes in legislation: e.g., for means-tested benefits. For example, in the Jobseekers Act 1995, “unmarried couple” was defined as a man and woman who are not married to each other but who are living together in the same household as husband and wife other than in prescribed circumstances. But in many areas of the law cohabitants enjoy no special rights. Thus when a cohabiting relationship ends ownership of any assets will be decided by property law. The courts have no discretion to reallocate assets, as occurs on divorce.

It is sometimes questionably claimed[15] that before the Marriage Act 1753 cohabiting couples would enjoy the protection of a “common-law marriage”. In fact, the precise status of couples who had not undergone a formal marriage ceremony before this act is open to question. Neither the name nor the concept of “common-law marriage” was known at this time.[14] Far from being treated as if they were married, couples known to be cohabiting risked prosecution by the church courts for fornication. Couples who lived together without undergoing a marriage ceremony before the Marriage Act 1753 are sometimes thought to have undertaken a “contract marriage” by mutual consent. However, contract marriages (or more strictly contracts per verba de praesenti), were not acknowledged as having the legal status of a valid marriage until the decision in Dalrymple in 1811.[16] This decision would have had no impact on the subsequent development of English law had it not been for the fact that the Marriage Act 1753 did not apply overseas. English courts later held that it was possible to marry by a simple exchange of consent in the colonies although most of the disputed ceremonies involved the ministrations of a priest or other clergyman. The influence of American law led to such marriages being described as “common-law marriages”.

The English courts also upheld marriages by consent in territories not under British control but only if it had been impossible for the parties to marry according to the requirements of the local law.[17] The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a spate of cases arising out of the Second World War, with marriages in prisoner-of-war camps in German-occupied Europe posing a particular problem for judges.[14] (Some British civilians interned by the Japanese during the Second World War were held to be legally married after contracting marriages under circumstances where the formal requirements could not be met.) To this limited extent, English law does recognise what has become known as a “common-law marriage”. English legal texts initially used the term to refer exclusively to American common-law marriages.[14] Only in the 1960s did the term “common-law marriage” begin to be used in its contemporary sense to denote unmarried, cohabiting heterosexual relationships[18] and not until the 1970s and 1980s did the term begin to lose its negative connotations.[18] The use of the term may have encouraged cohabiting couples to believe falsely that they enjoyed legal rights.

from wiki

Right, it seems that according to the insurance people we are common law partners.

Thank you all.

I’ve wondered the same thing. Does it actually make a difference to premiums?

I suppose you also get a common law mother in law 🙂

Going back to a previous life, it used to be cheaper to insure a husband and wife (evidence of lower accident rates/claims cost), so I’d assume they consider the same for co-habitees as opposed to more “casual” couples

Not sure if it makes a difference on the premiums. This was for a free 7-day insurance thing for a newly purchased car we’re collecting on Thursday. It seemed that only a married or common law partners could both be put on the insurance.

Is it not so the insurance companies can just charge you more? I mean, obviously everything they do is designed to charge you more because they’re blood sucking vampires but surely they’ll come up with some line about common law partners being less stable than married people so they’re more prone to crashing or some similar lie like that.

easy to find out if it does cost you more // fill in the application form and declare CL partner and press enter up will pop a price change details to single and up will pop up a price compare and contrast and you have an answer.

I suppose you also get a common law mother in law

or just a common mother in law 😉

Maybe common law is cheaper than being single as a single guy will be out trying to impress the ladies with his fancy driving skills!

Samuri,

Is it not so the insurance companies can just charge you less? I mean, obviously everything they do is designed to charge you less because they’re in a hugely compettative marketplace, but surely they’ll come up with some line about common law partners being more stable than single people so they’re less prone to crashing or some similar statistic like that?

You missed a question mark off the end.

@thisisnotaspoon

Insurance companies charging less? 😆

BTW a “common law marriage” was legally recognised in Scotland until 2006.

Is it not so the insurance companies can just charge you less?

Ha ha ha ha ha, that’s very good. I’ll have a pint of what he’s drinking please landlord!

Edit: Actually, better make that a half – I’ve got work in the morning.