Cohabitation Before or Without Marriage?

NPR today sent its newsletter containing an interesting NPR segment on the issue of cohabitation without marriage. This story is part of the New Boom series on millennials in America and was written by Connor Donovan on November 1, 2014. This article, with its wonderful resource links, may be read here. http://tinyurl.com/lbfvcck

My comment to this article:

"As a family lawyer who has practiced family law for 29 years, the messiest and often the most difficult cases I handled have involved adults whose cohabitation relationship has terminated because of incompatibility. These may be male/female relationships, or they may be same-sex relationships. If the parties have acquired real estate together without benefit of legal counsel, mistakes made in taking title to that property may prove difficult and expensive to resolve, depending upon the law of the state of the parties. No matter who the parties are--cohabitation is not something that should be undertaken lightly and without benefit of legal counsel and without a cohabitation agreement to provide for the rights and responsibilities of each party. An article I wrote, published by the American Bar Association, outlines some of these problems and may be read online here: http://tinyurl.com/lp3df76

I agree with those who espouse cohabitation as a means of learning whether the parties are compatible. But all too often, the relationship (like some marriages) continues only because of inertia. One or both parties are dissatisfied, but they delay in resolving issues or in leaving the relationship. When there is an imbalance of power in the relationship and when there is no cohabitation agreement to protect the weaker party, the dissolution can be even more painful, expensive and devastating--particularly if minor children are involved."

While parties may not contract regarding child custody and child support issues, they can make agreements about all other issues. One of the pervasive and problematice issues, though, is how the parties allocate their rights and responsiblilities.

Other posts on this blog dealing with cohabitation issues may be read here.

You can contact me to discuss your questions involving cohabitation and your future rights to support and or property division. Email [email protected]