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Child outside of marriage- legal consequences?

11 replies

sepa · 30/10/2015 14:46

Hi ladies, I have just been having a chat with one of my clients (who doesn't know I am pregnant) and we got into a conversation about the consequences of not being married and owning a house with your partner (which I am aware of) but he also said that there are legal consequences (if that's the right word) for not being married and having a child together. Is there anything that I should be aware about regarding the legality of us having children and not being married? Eg, if one of us (probably me as the mother) passes away that would cause issues for the remaining parent raising the child?

I am not worried about us splitting up and the legality of that and my DP will be on the birth certificate which I assumed gave the father automatic parental rights. Am I wrong?

Sorry about the rambly post but if there will be issues then we should probably clear them up before DC is born

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VimFuego101 · 30/10/2015 14:52

You are correct about the fact that your DP being on the birth certificate will give him PR - no issues there.

If you were to separate and were unmarried, you would not be able to claim anything other than child support from him - ie none of his pensions, savings, assets. I'm not sure where you would stand re inheritance if unmarried and he hasn't made a will.

I believe that if you have a child outside of marriage and then marry, they need to be re-registered as a child of the marriage. Something to do with inheritances maybe? I probably read that on MN

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sepa · 30/10/2015 14:56

I know we both need to make a will. It's not so much the financial implications I am worried about just more if I was to pass away would he automatically become the legal guardian or would say my mum (who I guess as my parent would have legal right to my possessions should I die without a will) have to give him this?

To be honest, if DP doesn't have legal guardianship over his own child should something happen to me (and he is on birth certificate) then it's a pretty shady rule we have here !

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Jeffreythegiraffe · 30/10/2015 15:02

I think the biggest mistake people make is thinking that there is such a thing as a common law marriage, there isn't. I assume if you aren't married your dh wouldn't be entitled to your pension if you had one.

The vulnerable position to be in is if you are a sahm with no finances/income of your own, as if you split you could end up with nothing.

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VimFuego101 · 30/10/2015 15:03

He would have legal guardianship if you were to die. I suppose your mum could challenge it if she felt he was an unfit father, but being married or not is irrelevant to that A will would also help you spell out what you want to happen if you both died together.

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sepa · 30/10/2015 15:08

Financially we earn roughly the same and the house we own together has a financial split by a solicitor to cover us both should we split up and sell the house so that's all fine.
We will be doing a will now that we have DC on the way to say should 1 of us die it goes to the other and if neither of us it gets split evenly between any children we have.

We are planning on getting married one day, just the baby has happened first.....

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Junosmum · 30/10/2015 15:31

If he is named on the birth certificate he has automatic parental responsibility/ parental rights and has automatic responsibility to take care of child on death of mother. Someone (anyone, not necessarily a relative) can challenge this, for example if he was an absent father however he would not have to go to court/ get an official ok etc if no oe challenged it. They'd just go on living as you currently are but without you, iyswim

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Teacakequeen · 30/10/2015 15:39

He only has parental responsibility once you register the birth together. If you died before that, he'd need to go to court to get it.

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Brummiegirl15 · 30/10/2015 16:10

I'm interested in this as well. I own a house with my DP and we have our first child on the way.

But I do really worry about what would happen if anything happened to him.

We will be sorting wills out and hopefully get a bloody ring on my finger at some point

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MrsCrimshaw · 30/10/2015 18:02

Same position here. Have you taken out life insurance for each other? In your pension plan, you should be able to opt to choose who it goes to. I am in the Teachers Pension Scheme and there is a form to fill in when you don't want it to go to your official next of kin. I think it's standard practice. Definitely do a will too.

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Brummiegirl15 · 30/10/2015 18:12

On my pension my death in service 3 x salary payment does go to DP and vice versa so we've got that at least

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sepa · 30/10/2015 18:13

I will look into the pension. I know our life insurance pays to each other so that ones fine