When a couple lives together in the State of Texas but isn’t married, the matter of each party’s rights in the event of a breakup is an important concern. Protecting your financial and parental rights is paramount, so it’s important to have a solid understanding of your rights when you live with your partner but aren’t married.
Discuss your questions and concerns about your rights with an experienced Round Rock family law attorney today.
The Matter of Common Law Marriage
Texas recognizes common-law marriage, which affords couples the same protections that married couples have. However, the requirements for a common-law marriage are exacting and have nothing to do with how long you’ve lived together. For a common-law marriage to be valid, you and your partner must meet the following requirements:
Agreeing between yourselves that you’re a married couple
Holding yourself out as a married couple, which includes telling other people you’re married and engaging in practices that married couples do, such as filing your taxes as a married couple filing jointly
Living together as a married couple
Another means is achieving common-law marriage status in another state, which the State of Texas will recognize.
If you do establish that you are in a common-law marriage, it’s important to know that there is no common-law divorce. Common law marriages are just as valid as other marriages, and in order to undo the contractual obligations involved, you’ll need to obtain a divorce.
Divorce tends to be an emotional journey that involves a good deal of legal wrangling, but it also offers important protections for your financial and parental rights.
If your relationship doesn’t qualify as a common-law marriage, protecting your rights can be challenging. Having a dedicated Round Rock family law attorney in your corner is the best path forward.
A Cohabitation Agreement in Texas
Unmarried couples in Texas can also obtain a cohabitation agreement. A cohabitation agreement is very much like a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, except the involved parties aren’t married or aren’t getting married.
Your cohabitation agreement can outline which assets and debts belong to either of you separately and how other assets and debts will be distributed between you if you end your relationship. A cohabitation agreement can also address the amount and duration of post-breakup support, which is called spousal maintenance in a divorce.
Cohabitation agreements can’t address child custody arrangements and child support – unless the amount included exceeds state requirements. Child custody arrangements are always based on the children’s best interests at the time of the legal proceedings. These needs cannot be determined ahead of time.
If you need help understanding how your cohabitation agreement will affect your case, contact a Round Rock divorce attorney.
An Unmarried Couple’s Property Rights in Texas
Over the course of a marriage, all the assets that the couple comes to own – regardless of who made the purchase or whose name is attached – are considered marital property that must be divided fairly in the event of a divorce. If you live together but aren’t married, your property rights in the State of Texas are far more precarious.
Divorcing couples tend to invest a good deal of time and effort into obtaining favorable property divisions, and they do so because they have rights that are well worth protecting. When the couple isn’t married, there are no clear protections in place to ensure they receive what they’re entitled to in the event of a breakup.
For example, if your mortgage is in your partner’s name, securing your ownership in the property can be legally challenging, even if you came up with the down payment together and shared the maintenance and mortgage payments.
By contrast, when a married couple purchases a home, it is marital property that must be addressed fairly upon divorce, regardless of whose name is on the mortgage.
An Unmarried Parent’s Rights in Texas
An unmarried mother’s parental rights are secure. She is considered to be her child’s legal parent from the start. However, an unmarried father’s rights need to be established.
When a woman has a baby, the law recognizes her as the child’s legal parent, which secures full parental rights for her. If the mother is married, the law presumes her husband is the child’s other legal parent. However, when the parents are not married, the matter of paternity – or determining the child’s other legal parent – must be established.
A Round Rock family law attorney can help you establish paternity or take any other steps needed to protect your parental rights.
Paternity by Agreement
When an unmarried couple lives and has a child together, the matter of paternity can be resolved fairly easily. This generally involves putting the father’s name on the birth certificate and filing an Acknowledgement of Paternity.
When both parties agree on parentage, establishing parental rights for the father is relatively straightforward. However, if either parent disagrees on the matter, additional legal hoops may be required, likely including DNA testing.
Legal And Physical Custody
Texas considers both legal and physical custody when determining child custody arrangements – whether they are triggered by divorce or a breakup. Legal custody determines decision-making authority for the following important parenting concerns:
Where your children make their primary home
Where your children attend school or daycare
The medical attention your children receive
The religious upbringing your children receive
The extracurricular activities your children participate in, including travel
Options include sole and joint legal custody, which can play out in all the following ways:
The parents make decisions together.
The parents make decisions together, but one of them retains the ability to break a tie if needed.
The parents divide the decisions between them according to category.
One parent makes each of these primary decisions independently.
Physical custody sets the parenting time schedule. Either the parents will divide their overnights with the children evenly, or one parent will assume the role of primary custodian while the other has a visitation schedule.
Once paternity is established, each parent’s rights in the event of a divorce or breakup aren’t affected by whether or not the couple was ever married. However, if paternity isn’t established, the issue can become far more challenging.
Best Interest Factors
Texas courts always turn to the best interests of the involved children when they make child custody decisions. Children’s best interests are determined in accordance with factors like the following:
The preferences of each parent and each child who is mature enough to offer input
Each child’s unique needs, including any special needs
Each parent’s ability and commitment to effectively address the children’s needs
Each child’s age and overall mental and physical health
Each parent’s overall mental and physical health
The depth of the bond between each parent and each child
The degree to which each parent has been involved in caring for the children thus far
Each parent’s commitment to effective co-parenting and to supporting each child’s relationship with the other parent
The degree to which the status quo – in terms of home, school, and community – serves the children’s best interests
How far the parents live from one another
Any additional factors the court deems relevant
Child Support
Once paternity is established, the matter of child support will be determined in the same manner after a breakup as it is after a divorce. Many variables go into the calculation process, but the primary concerns are the amount of parenting time each parent has and each parent’s earnings.
Alimony
Alimony (or spousal maintenance) is awarded in divorces that leave one spouse without the means to provide for their needs relative to the standard of living during the marriage when the other is able to help. When an unmarried couple hasn’t established a common-law marriage or a cohabitation agreement, neither party has a legal right to maintenance post-breakup.
Alimony is designed to allow the recipient the opportunity to gain increased financial independence. Often, this goal is achieved via one of the following methods:
Further education
Job training
The acquisition of job skills
It’s important to note that if you receive alimony from a prior marriage and cohabitate with a romantic partner, it could support a court-ordered modification or end the alimony order altogether. If you receive alimony and remarry, you must inform your ex, which will immediately end the legal obligation to make alimony payments without a modification through the court.
FAQ about Rights of Unmarried Couples
If you are breaking up and aren’t married to your partner, protecting your rights is critical, and the answers to questions that others in your situation ask most frequently may help.
Am I in a Common-Law Marriage?
If you aren’t sure whether or not your relationship qualifies as a common-law marriage, it likely doesn’t. To be in a common-law marriage in Texas, you must meet all of the following requirements:
You and your partner consider yourselves married.
You and your partner live together as a married couple.
You and your partner let other people know you’re married.
You and your partner have shared financial dealings like a married couple, such as by applying for aid together, filing your taxes together, naming each other as beneficiaries, and beyond.
In other words, establishing a common-law marriage is driven by the couple’s intentions and actions. As such, every case must be determined in relation to the unique circumstances involved, but the amount of time you’ve cohabitated won’t play a role.
Are My Parental Rights Protected?
If you are your children’s mother, you are automatically their legal parent. If you are your children’s father but you’re not married to their mother, your paternity must be established. If you were living with their mother when they were born, you likely took care of this at that time. If not, you’ll need to establish paternity in order to advocate effectively for your parental rights.
Once paternity is determined, your child custody case will proceed in exactly the same manner that it would if you were divorcing. In the process, your savvy Round Rock family law attorney will skillfully advocate for your parental rights – just like in a divorce.
Is Alimony a Possibility?
If you and your partner break up and you’re not married, you’re not in a common-law marriage, and you don’t have an agreement in place, alimony isn’t a possibility. When you part ways, you’ll leave with the assets and debts that are in your name and likely won’t have any additional financial protections.
Do I Need an Attorney?
If you and your partner are ending your relationship and you share children, assets, or both, consulting with an experienced Round Rock family law attorney early in the process is the surest means of protecting your parental and financial rights.
Your unmarried status leaves you with fewer financial rights, and the financial entanglements you share can prove challenging. As long as paternity is established, you both have parental rights, but protecting these rights throughout the legal process is key. A trusted family law attorney is standing by to help you identify and protect your rights.
Reach Out to an Experienced Round Rock Family Law Attorney Today
Brett Pritchard at The Law Office of Brett H. Pritchard in Round Rock, Texas, is a formidable family law attorney who dedicates his imposing practice to fiercely protecting the parental and financial rights of his clients – whether they are married or not.
If you are cohabitating without the protections afforded by marriage, common law marriage, or a cohabitation agreement, we’re here to help, so please don’t wait to contact us online or call us at (254) 781-4222 and schedule your FREE consultation today.