Cohabitation Gets Lawyers Excited
Coupling up and moving in together has been great for lawyers…
And it’s not because a wave of romanticism has hit the profession. Quite the opposite in fact:
The Gazette: Vanessa Lloyd Platt, founder of London firm Lloyd Platt & Co, said: ‘We have seen an explosion in the number of cohabitees coming to us to deal with the breakdown of their relationships, with cases up 15% over the last three months.’
She said part of the rise is because fewer people are marrying, but she attributed the recent surge to the impact of the recession.
The recession has apparently led to a wave of people needing boot out the unwanted partner who has no claim on the property in order to sell up. Although the law for married couples and civil partnerships deals with these events, unmarried couples sharing a house can be in for complex legal wrangles if things go wrong. Which is great for family lawyers (unless it happens to them) but not terribly romantic.
