Cohabitants

Less legal protection

More and more people choose not to get married, but to live together, start a family and build up assets together. In practice, it turns out that cohabitants also have to arrange and settle a lot after the relationship ends. The rules that apply to married couples do not automatically apply to unmarried cohabitants. They are less legally protected. This does not alter the fact that they will have to make agreements about joint assets and the children when the cohabitation ends. Even as unmarried parents, you are obliged to draw up a parenting plan. For example, you will have to make agreements about the division of care and child support. Parents are obliged to pay child support, whether they were married or not.

Even if there is a joint home, problems can arise about who can continue to live in the home and whether one of the two can take over the home. In addition, it often happens that one person has invested more capital in the joint home than the other. Furthermore, discussions about overpaid or underpaid costs of the joint household are common.

No obligation to pay spousal support

It is important to know that ex-cohabitants are not obliged to pay each other spousal support after the end of the cohabitation. Also, unmarried persons do not automatically build up old age and survivors' pensions for each other. The cohabitants are not legal heirs of each other.

Cohabitation agreement of importance

A cohabitation agreement or will may of course contain agreements that offer more protection if the relationship ends.