{"id":3667,"date":"2019-08-19T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.just-family-law.com\/blog\/?p=3667"},"modified":"2020-05-07T13:17:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:17:16","slug":"divorce-settlement-after-living-together-pre-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.just-family-law.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/19\/divorce-settlement-after-living-together-pre-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Divorce settlement after living together pre marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Divorce<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you know? – the length of\u00a0time you live together before\u00a0marriage can affect the share you receive of matrimonial assets if you divorce …<\/p>\n

Larry the cat<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Larry the cat lives at 10 Downing Street. If he’s anything like my cat he’s always changing his mind. You let him in and straightaway he wants to go out again. He’s out, and next thing you know, he’s yowling at the door. It’s possible some humans are like this too. Forever changing their mind, chopping and changing, difficult to pin down.<\/p>\n

Chopping and changing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But chopping and changing can lead to consequences if you’re a human being.\u00a0Let’s pretend you’ve been married twice – in fact you’re still married to your second wife –\u00a0 and you’re living at – um, well – let’s say an address in the centre of London not a million miles from Larry the cat. Some commentators are now referring to your cohabitee as the “First Girlfriend”.<\/p>\n

Tot up the years<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps you’re pondering marriage to\u00a0the First Girlfriend\u00a0once you’re divorced from your second wife. Heaven forbid this third marriage won’t last but say if it doesn’t? And say if it doesn’t last very long at all? How do you protect yourself against a claim\u00a0that, taken together with the previous cohabitation, it wasn’t a short marriage? Perhaps it’s time to take advice from an\u00a0expert family lawyer<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why length of marriage is important<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The starting point for the division of matrimonial assets is equal division (see my blog on Financial settlements<\/a><\/em>).\u00a0But this doesn’t always apply to short marriages<\/em><\/strong>. Take a look at my blog\u00a0Short marriages – 10 things you need to know<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0So if you’re only married for a short period of time you might not want any prior period of cohabitation to count.<\/p>\n

When does living together count towards length of marriage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Court has set down that the time you live together is counted if you move “seamlessly” from living together to marriage.\u00a0The Judge in the case of\u00a0GW v RW<\/a>\u00a0said, “… where a relationship moves seamlessly from cohabitation to marriage without any major alteration in the way the couple live, it is unreal and artificial to treat the periods differently.”<\/p>\n

What does move “seamlessly” mean<\/strong><\/h3>\n