Marriage certificate equivalent?

[PheasantPlucker9]

Good afternoon :)

My partner and I are not married and given the circumstances it is not looking like it's happening soon.

We have a joint mortgage and I am trying to compile a list of all legal documents we would need to basically 'simulate' a marriage.

So far my list is: mirror wills, life insurance trusts, power of attorney.
Am I forgetting something? What are all the separate documents that basically add up to a marriage certificate? Or maybe that's impossible?

We are not against marriage but it is logistically very hard for the near future.

Many thanks in advance for any insight.

Be well and stay safe :)

How about a cohabitation contract?

With what goal?

It isn't possible to fully replicate marriage (otherwise there'd be no point getting married, other than for the party/big dress etc ) so your best plan is to get married as soon as allowed to. But as an interim your list looks good, you need to sort out ownership of the property with your solicitor, either as joint tenants or tenants in common. Also if you have pensions, check you are each others nominated beneficiary.

Also I'd go through this link and see which of the differences between cohabitation and marriage are relevant to you and whether there's anything you can replicate

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/living-together-and-marriage-legal-differences/

For both pensions and any workplace death in service payments, check who is on them as beneficiary

You can’t do anything about IHT or certain govt bereavement benefits (or nominate cohabitee on some older pensions)

Thanks so much for all your replies.

I know a lot of these matters are common sense to many but it never occurred me to research them until they were relevant to us.

Marriage was always an option but the house opportunity took us by surprise. A few months later and we' re surrounded by death and insecurity. We're suddenly rushing to sort out all the proper paperwork, but which way to go?

From what I've been reading the simplest, least bureaucratic and cheapest thing to do is a civil partnership. Unfortunately it's not open to opposite sex partners in Scotland yet so I'm a bit torn: pay ££££ to arrange all the above one by one or sit tight until the law passes and sort everything out with £150.

Thanks again to everyone for replying, take care and be safe :)

if you came to England for a civi partnership, would it be valid in Scotland ?

Obviously, depending where you are in Scotland, this might not make things any less complicated.

Much less complicated to get married. You don't even have to tell anyone.