What is behind the recent increase in will & inheritance disputes? Niamh Wilkie & Stephanie Coker consider the complications caused by cohabitation & blended families
- Increasingly, couples are cohabiting instead of getting married.
- Families are more likely to be blended.
- This can create complications and disputes related to inheritance and wills.
There has been a rise in the number of will and inheritance disputes in recent years. This piece seeks to discuss some of these reasons with reference to case law to demonstrate the way in which these matters come before the courts, and what practitioners can learn from these cases.
Lack of protection from cohabitation
Nowadays, more and more couples cohabit rather than get married. The Office for National Statistics confirmed that in the UK in 2022, one in five families are cohabitating-couple families. Often, couples believe in the existence of ‘common law marriage’ in the UK if they have cohabitated for a certain length of time. As such, they believe they are protected by this notion for inheritance purposes if their partner dies. The reality is that cohabitees
