Registering a birth

[Beebs1991]

Hi all new to this but would really appreciate any advice as I'm not sure if anyone else has had to deal with this. A few details beforehand. My ex partner is on our child's birth certificate. We are not legally married. We had a religious ceremony but it doesn't meet the necessary requirements to be recognised legally ie. Did not take place in a registered building nor did we notify the relevant office prior to performing the ceremony. I am aware he has parental responsibility being on the birth certificate however he registered the birth on his own and i have been looking online and according to what I've found if the father goes to register the birth without the mother being present he needs a signed declaration from the mother in order to register the birth. He never brought a form home for me to sign. Everywhere I've looked says the same thing about the declaration form being required with a signature from the mother which makes sense as i know if the father isn't on the certificate he can only be added on either with a court application or mother's permission. I'm going to ring the registration office as soon as i can but was wondering if anyone has had to deal with this and what was the outcome? Thanks in advance

I'm not married to DS dad but we live together in committed relationship so he was always going to be on the birth cert.
They wouldn't even allow him to book the appointment without me hearing a statement about the legal implications of putting a man I'm not married to on the birth cert.
I'm not sure how you DP managed to register the birth unless he lied about you being legally married.

My DH had to show our marriage certificate as proof. I think your ex has probably lied in which case you may be able to file a complaint.

Have you seen the birth certificate?

Your partner went to register your child's birth without you? He then lied about being married in order for the registration to go ahead? He perjured himself and you must speak to the General Register Office about this, it needs to be sorted out because it will be clear from the certificate that you appear to be married - it can cause issues in future for you child.
The declaration form can only be used if it is completed BEFORE the registration. It would have to be signed by you and witnessed by a magistrate or similar.
However....no births have been registered since the end of March due to COVID19, it is possible that he is lying to you rather than lying to the registrar.

He has lied, either to you or the registrar or both. Me and DH have always gone together, had to give our marriage date and then only one signature required (DH signed not me). Assuming if the father goes alone they have to take marriage cert, your ex has somehow managed to bluff his way around this and then probably given the date of your non official wedding date and signed the certificate.

Hi all thanks for taking the time to reply. I spoke to a lady from the Leicester office and she said that according to their handbook if the father believes the marriage is legal then they wouldn't question it. I feel like it's such a big loophole though considering that if they were more thorough then he'd never have gotten away with it. I've been advised to email the registrar general as i don't believe that he believes our marriage is legal. Reasons being are that his brother got married before us and he registered it properly so he would've been aware of the process. Also he was the one who said to me when we were arranging the ceremony that we have to do it legally as well. Furthermore I remember after we'd done the ceremony, i asked if he had sorted it all out legally and he said no so i looked up the process and told him it was too late to do so as you have to inform them beforehand. Lastly, and this is the most concerning, i remember when we received the certificates he said and i quote 'I'm going to give my mum a copy to keep safe just in case anything happens'.
@Starlightstarbright1 yes we each have a copy
@PerspicaciaTick unfortunately it's for our daughter who was born 1/10/18 so it's been a little while. I've only just realised as I'm pregnant with our second and was reading up on the process of registering births which i know I'll have to wait to do but I'm worried he'll try to do the same thing again and I'm not hopeful that they'll remove him from her certificate but the lady said it's worth a shot so I'm going to send the email see what they say