Why should I get married?

[youremindmeofthebabe]

I live with my DP, the father of our 4 year old son. We own the house we live in, a joint mortgage. I would like to get married, but am not sure what legal benefits there would be to this. We are currently trying for dc2. Many thanks.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Inheritance tax.
Tax benefits.
Big party
Wedding presents.

[youremindmeofthebabe]

Liking the big party bit of it!

[BecauseItoldYouSo]

It would be alot less difficult for your DH to ensure custody (if anyone contested it) of your DC's if something happened to you.

[Piffle]

You only inherit half the house if he died
Makes things tricky
Inheritance tax us a biggy

[prh47bridge]

Whilst you are unmarried you have little protection if your relationship ends.

If you haven't made wills you will not inherit anything from each other whereas if you are married the surviving partner inherits everything. What happens to the house in this situation depends on whether your are joint tenants or tenants in common. If you are joint tenants the surviving partner will own the whole house. If you are tenants in common you will only own half of the house. The other half will belong to the children of the dead partner, both from this relationship and previous relationships.

[Resolution]

Becauseitoldyouso isn't right. I assume your partner is on the birth certificate, so he shares parental responsibility with you and has equal status as a parent. Marriage doesn't change this.
The inheritance tax issue mentioned above is that you inherit from a spouse free of IHT.
On relationship breakdown the court can transfer assets from one of you to the other.

[BecauseItoldYouSo]

Resolution - I only said this as my DP and I are not married but have a child. My child is not a Brit (we are expats, not sure if that makes the difference). I was told that get something put in writing (ie. will) because if my immediate family (mother, brother, etc) contested custody of DD in the event of my death that it could cause a great deal of problems for my DP as we are not married.

[Resolution]

If the child was born abroad then the rule granting fathers PR if they are on the birth certificate won't apply. It only applies to UK registered births. In your case, BITYS, getting married would give dad PR.

[youremindmeofthebabe]

Thanks very much. As dp is named on the birth certificate, and we are in a joint tenancy, as advised by my IFA, then legally we've kind of got it covered in the case of death. Cheers for the advice.

[Cappster]

there was a thread on this years ago from a mner whose husband had died

if you're married and widowed you get a state benefit - widowed parent's allowance, or something, which really makes a difference