The Today’s Family Lawyer podcast welcomes well-known cohabitation reform specialist and campaigner Graeme Fraser on to discuss the next steps for legislative reform.
Graeme is a partner and head of the family team at BBS Law and Chair the Resolution Cohabitation committee. He decries the lack of legislation in this important, and growing area of family law. 1 in 3 first time buyers are cohabitees, and with accommodation, whether rental or purchase, increasingly unaffordable, the issue is only going to be become more prevalent.
The key issues as Graeme explains, are the need for greater property rights, financial provision for children and arrangements for children; the gulf between rights when you’re married and when you’re not is huge, and there is still a misnomer that you have acquired rights by living together, when you simply haven’t.
The issue is also a growing equality issue, with the need for law that acknowledges and respects contributions by both sides of the family, including bringing up children, and looking after the home. There is precedent; White v White and Burns v Burns comes to mind, but 40 years on the position is even more unclear than it’s ever been.
Learning from other countries, Graeme explains that concerns over controversy are unfounded; the introduction of cohabitation reform has been relatively smooth he says, and often follow a couple of established paths;
- de facto relationships – couples are effectively considered married after a certain period of cohabitation
- Opt out position – you have to opt out of various protections given by cohabitation.
Graeme is keen to reaffirm that nobody campaigning for cohabitation reform is devaluing marriage. But legislation which conflates cohabitation with marriage is not the right route to go down; rather, he says, we should be looking at ways to protect couples, in particular women and children, from the pitfalls of separation in cases where the couple are not married.
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