How unmarried couples can protect themselves before things fall apart | Money | The Observer

How unmarried couples can protect themselves before things fall apart | Money | The Observer

There are three things that definitely do not exist, according to the website advicenow.org.uk: the Loch Ness monster, cats' nine lives and common law marriage. Patricia Jones, the woman at the centre of last week's Supreme Court case to determine what share her former cohabiting partner is entitled to in the family home, has learned this the hard way.

Jones and her ex, Leonard Kernott, split up in 1993 after sharing a home in Thundersley, Essex, for eight years. Jones paid the £6,000 deposit and mortgage on the £30,000 bungalow while Kernott paid £100-a-week "expenses".