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If you are going to live together with your partner for any
extended period of time without getting married, there are several
compelling reasons why you may wish to consider entering into
a cohabitation agreement.
Even though you may regard your partner as a “family
member,” the law in California does not. As a result, your
partner may not be taken care of in the manner in which you wish
unless you enter into a cohabitation agreement. Also, by entering into such an agreement a person can avoid potentially
costly misunderstandings with his or her partner and avoid becoming
the target of a civil lawsuit, which is commonly referred to
as a “Marvin” or “palimony” action. Most
unmarried couples —whether gay or straight— who live
together don't bother entering into cohabitation agreements,
and by so doing they incur undesired and in some instances significant
exposure.
Simply living together as alleged “husband and wife” cannot
give rise to a marriage or other legal marriage-like union under
California or federal law. The concept of "common law marriage" was long ago abolished
in California. Consequently, non-marital cohabitation does not itself confer
any rights or obligations under the Family Code.
As people set up a household together they have certain expectations
regarding how the couples’ finances and obligations will
be handled. For example, a man may expect that his separate property
will stay his separate property, and that under no circumstances
would he become obligated to support his live-in girlfriend if
the relationship ended.
Problems arise when live-in partners have conflicting expectations,
or a bad break-up occurs especially after a prolonged period
of cohabitation. The wealthier partner in such case may become the target of a
palimony or Marvin lawsuit. In such actions, one party typically
alleges that the other promised him or her financial support
for his or her life, and/or that all property his or her partner
acquired during the relationship was supposed to belong to both
of them.
If you don’t enter into a cohabitation agreement, and
your partner's claims are believed, you could be obligated to
divide your property with and/or pay on-going monthly support
payments to your partner. Most people who are not married but
live together are surprised to learn they are exposed to such
liability. After all, one of the primary reasons that most people
live together for long periods of time without getting married
is because they hoped to avoid the obligations imposed on married
couples under the Family Code in the first place.
Thus, if you don’t have a written cohabitation agreement
with your partner, your are at risk of being target of a palimony
or Marvin action, and the unfortunate reality of our judicial
system —especially in the case of civil actions which all
palimony actions are since the parties’ relationship falls
outside the boundaries of the Family Law Court— is that
the costs of defending against even a baseless claim would far
exceed the price of a well-drafted cohabitation agreement.
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