What could new rights for unmarried couples mean for your money?
When Amelia's fiance died suddenly in his 20s, just months before their wedding, she never imagined the legal and financial turmoil that would follow. "I
When Amelia's fiance died suddenly in his 20s, just months before their wedding, she never imagined the legal and financial turmoil that would follow. "I lost him," she says, "and then I lost everything we'd ever built together." The couple had been together more than seven years and shared a business. But they were not married and Simon did not have a will, so his mother and father inherited all of his assets - apart from the couple's house - and Amelia was unable to stop them.
"I ended up in a legal battle with his parents," says Amelia, whose real name and that of her late fiance we are not using for legal reasons. Simon's parents kept his car, phone and pension, as well as more personal items including his clothes, CDs and aftershave - as was their legal right. Amelia says she was also unable to get back her share of savings she'd transferred into an account in Simon's name to pay for their upcoming wedding. "It felt like he was being ripped away from me again, every time something else was taken," she says.
"Giving [over] the artwork from our bedroom wall and the shirt I wore to his funeral was ridiculously hard." Amelia says she spent nearly £10,000 on legal advice and trying to get back her share of the wedding savings. And though she was able to keep their house, as she and Simon had bought it as joint tenants, she now also has to pay his half of their mortgage. Some of Amelia's friends have been so spooked by her experience, they have since taken out wills and life insurance.
"Everyone just assumed that I was entitled to everything," she says. Currently, couples who live together but are unmarried have few legal rights if they separate or one dies without a will. But last month, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched a 10-week consultation on proposals that would change this for people in England and Wales, external.
The BriefWire