This can, in fact, make a big difference as when cohabitation passes seamlessly into marriage the years of prior cohabitation are generally added to the length of the marriage.

If a couple lived together for 10 years before marriage and then divorced 2 years later this would convert the marriage from a very short marriage to a 12 year marriage. The rules applied to the division of the assets would be very different as would the likely outcome. 

For example the party to a marriage who holds less pension assets is usually able to claim for a share of the other party’s pensions that accrued over the course of the marriage/prior cohabitation so as to equalise their pension pots.  When prior cohabitation is taken into account this often very significantly increases the pension share. 

In many cases it is obvious when cohabitation started e.g. if the parties buy a house together.  In other cases it is less so for example when one person spends a few nights a week in the other person’s house for a period of time. 

In some cases the difference made is potentially so significant that the parties argue over the date that cohabitation commenced and the pension expert dealing with the pension assets is asked to provide 2 separate calculations for the pension share using the competing dates.  The District Judge in the court proceedings is then asked to decide, on the evidence provided by the parties, which date is preferred.  This obviously significantly increases the costs for both parties.  It would really only be worth doing this if the pension assets were very significant in value. 

George Green’s Specialist Family and Divorce lawyers give advice regularly on divorce and the financial aspects of divorce. If you wish to discuss your matter please call Jane Williams on 01384 340 528 (jwilliams@georgegreen.co.uk) at our Cradley Heath office.  We represent clients from the West Midlands and beyond including Wolverhampton, Tettenhall, Dudley, Stourbridge, Cradley Heath and Birmingham.