Which Law Applies to You.
Everything else on this page follows from one question: whether you were married or in a civil partnership. The two situations are governed by different law and produce different answers, and there is no version of the married rules for couples who lived together.
If You Were Not Married
Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996
There is no common law marriage in England and Wales, and no claim on your partner’s income, savings or pension however long you lived together. What you can claim is a share of property you have an interest in, decided by the law of trusts, and provision for a child under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989.
Dividing What There Is
For spouses and civil partners
The home, savings, investments, businesses and debts. The court has a wide discretion to transfer, sell or adjust ownership of property under section 24 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.
Pensions
Usually the second largest asset, and separately ordered
A pension is not divided by dividing anything else. It takes a pension sharing order under section 24B, and valuing what is actually being shared frequently needs an expert rather than the figure on a statement.
Maintenance Between Adults
Where a capital division is not enough
Periodical payments from one spouse or civil partner to the other, where one cannot meet their needs from their own income. The court must consider whether a clean break is appropriate instead, under section 25A.
The Legal Position
For spouses and civil partners the court exercises a discretion under section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, with first consideration given to the welfare of any child of the family while a minor.
Sharing Applies to Marital Property
In Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26 the Supreme Court held that the sharing principle applies to matrimonial property and not to non-matrimonial property, and that whose name an asset is in does not decide which it is.
How Something Becomes Shared
What matters is the source of the asset and how the two of you treated it over time. A transfer into one person’s sole name is not enough on its own, and a transfer made for tax reasons does not imply it. Inheritance and pre-marital property turn on the same question.
Disclosure Is a Duty
Each of you must give full and frank disclosure, and it continues throughout. An order obtained on incomplete disclosure can be set aside afterwards, which is why the temptation to leave something out is a false economy.
How a Settlement Is Reached
Most matters settle by agreement. The sequence below is the same whether it settles early or is decided by a judge, because the disclosure has to be done either way.
Disclosure
Both of you set out everything you have and everything you owe, with the documents behind it. In proceedings this is done on Form E.
This stage takes the time. It is also the stage that determines the outcome, because nothing can be negotiated properly until both of you are looking at the same picture.
Negotiation, or an Application to the Court
Positions are exchanged and negotiated, whether directly, through solicitors, in mediation or at a private financial dispute resolution hearing.
Where that does not resolve it, an application is made and the court sets a timetable of hearings, at which the judge will encourage settlement before deciding anything.
The Order, Which Is What Ends It
An agreement is written up as a consent order and approved by a judge. A contested case ends in an order the judge makes.
Either way it is the order, not the agreement and not the divorce, that dismisses the claims. Where a clean break is appropriate, that is what closes them for good.
Legal Aid and Fees
£180 for the consultation, up to one hour, plus VAT at 20% where UK VAT applies to you. That depends on where you are living when you instruct us, and we will tell you before you decide.
£180You do not pay it if you already hold a legal aid certificate, or if your matter is care proceedings brought by a local authority. The government eligibility checker is not a certificate: it estimates eligibility, it does not grant it, so we cannot waive the fee on a checker result.
Otherwise the fee is payable, and we carry out the legal aid assessment at the consultation itself, on means and then merit. That assessment is what decides how your case proceeds. For financial proceedings legal aid also requires evidence of domestic abuse from a prescribed list, on top of the means and merits assessments, which is not the case for a protective order application. The fee for the work itself is assessed after that meeting and confirmed in writing before any work starts.
Things to Know
These answers state the general position in England and Wales. Your advice will address your circumstances.
We Lived Together for Years. What Am I Entitled To?
Not what a spouse would be. There is no common law marriage in England and Wales, and no length of cohabitation creates a claim on your partner’s income, savings or pension. What you may have is a beneficial interest in property, decided by the law of trusts, and a claim for a child under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989.
Is Everything Split Down the Middle?
No. Equality is a yardstick the court checks a proposed division against rather than a rule it starts from, and sharing applies to matrimonial property rather than to everything either of you owns. Needs frequently produce an unequal division, particularly where there are children.
What About My Inheritance, or the House I Owned Before?
It depends on where it came from and how the two of you treated it. Following Standish v Standish, the sharing principle does not apply to non-matrimonial property, and putting an asset into joint names or into the other person’s name does not by itself make it shared. Needs can still reach it where there is not enough elsewhere.
Does It Matter How They Behaved?
Rarely. Conduct is a section 25 factor only where it would be inequitable to disregard it, which is a high threshold and not met by the ordinary conduct that ends a marriage. Hiding assets is treated very differently, because that is conduct in the proceedings themselves.
What Happens to the Pension?
It is dealt with by its own order. A pension sharing order transfers a percentage of one person’s pension into a pension for the other. The transfer value on a statement is often a poor guide to what it is worth in a division, so an expert report is common.
We Have Already Agreed. Do We Need an Order?
Yes, if you want it to be final. An agreement between you does not dismiss the claims. Only an order of the court does, and without one either of you can bring a claim years later, including against something acquired after the separation.
How Long Does Spousal Maintenance Last?
For whatever term the order specifies, which may be a fixed period or, less commonly, until death or remarriage. The court must consider whether a clean break is appropriate instead, so an order for maintenance is not the default outcome.
What Should I Have Ready for the First Meeting?
Whether you were married or in a civil partnership, and the dates. Roughly what is owned and owed and in whose name, including any pension and any property held before the relationship. Recent statements if you have them. We will explain what full disclosure requires after considering your position.
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