Let’s talk: the legal position for cohabiting couples

In the latest podcast as part of our ‘Let’s Talk’ series, Hannah Minty and Sally Nash discuss the legal position of cohabitants on the breakdown of a relationship and contrast the position in Scotland, where legislation has long been in place to make provision for cohabiting couples if a relationship comes to an end, compared with the position in England and Wales where there is no equivalent legal framework.

Hannah and Sally cover the following topics:

• the need for reform in England and Wales and the renewed calls for a framework of basic protections for cohabiting couples now that progress has been made in other areas of family law like ‘no fault’ divorce;
• the legal framework in Scotland and the provision available to separated couples who have cohabited under the  Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006;
• how the Scottish provisions work on a practical basis;
• the call for reform in Scotland and how this might shape the legal protection offered there.

Hannah is a partner in the family team at Russell-Cooke and is dual qualified England & Wales and Scotland. She advises clients from all backgrounds on divorce and financial matters, jurisdictional disputes, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, property disputes between cohabitees, and financial claims on behalf of children following the breakdown of relationships between unmarried couples.

Sally is a partner in the family law team at Gilson Gray in Edinburgh and is dual qualified England & Wales and Scotland. Sally deals with a wide range of cases in the family law field including financial provision on divorce, cohabitation, child related issues and nuptial agreements.