Unmarried couples in Florida build lives together in every way that married couples do. They buy homes, raise children, start businesses, and support one another through career changes and illness. What they do not do is acquire any of the legal protections that marriage confers automatically — and most of them do not realize it until the relationship ends.
Florida Does Not Recognize Common Law Marriage
Florida abolished common law marriage effective January 1, 1968. No matter how long two people live together, hold themselves out as a couple, share finances, or raise children together, they do not become married under Florida law by the passage of time. There is no threshold number of years. There is no informal status that attaches.
The consequence is straightforward. When an unmarried couple separates, there is no equitable distribution of property, no alimony, and no automatic claim to assets held in the other partner’s name. The partner who stayed home, who paid the mortgage on a house titled solely to the other, or who worked in the other’s business without a salary generally has no family law remedy at all. What that partner has, if anything, is a contract claim — which is why the contract needs to exist.
Florida does recognize common law marriages that were validly formed in other states that permit them. If a couple established such a marriage elsewhere before moving to Florida, that is a separate analysis worth discussing with an attorney.
What a Cohabitation Agreement Covers
- Ownership of the residence, and what happens to it if the relationship ends
- How mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, and improvements are credited between the partners
- Whether property acquired during the relationship is jointly or separately owned
- Responsibility for household expenses and for one another’s debts
- Treatment of a business one or both partners operate
- Whether either partner will provide financial support after separation, and for how long
- Ownership of pets, vehicles, and personal property
- How disputes will be resolved
Making the Agreement Enforceable
Florida courts will enforce a written agreement between unmarried cohabitants like any other contract, provided the consideration supporting it is lawful. An agreement founded on the exchange of sexual services is not enforceable, and an agreement should be drafted so that this issue never arises. Put the agreement in writing, have each partner represented by separate counsel, exchange financial disclosure, and sign before or early in the period of cohabitation rather than in the middle of a dispute.
Who Should Consider One
Cohabitation agreements are worth serious consideration for partners buying property together, for couples where one partner has significantly greater assets or income, for people who have been through a prior divorce and do not intend to marry again, for older couples who are combining households while preserving estates for adult children, and for partners who are contributing unequally to a shared home or business.
The firm represents clients throughout Florida, and consultations are available in person, by telephone, and by video. To discuss a cohabitation agreement, contact the Law Offices of Monique K. Pope, P.A. to schedule a consultation. Se habla español.