'I lost everything we built': New rights for unmarried couples proposed

When Amelia's fiance Simon died suddenly in his 20s, just months before their wedding, she lost him — and then "everything we'd ever built together." The couple had been together more than seven years and shared a business. But because they were not married and Simon had no will, his parents inherited all his assets apart from the couple's house. Amelia says she spent nearly £10,000 on legal advice trying to recover her share of savings she had transferred into Simon's account for their wedding. She was unable to stop his parents taking his car, phone, pension, clothes, CDs and aftershave. "It felt like he was being ripped away from me again, every time something else was taken," she says. "Giving [over] the artwork from our bedroom wall and the shirt I wore to his funeral was ridiculously hard." Though Amelia kept their house because they had bought it as joint tenants, she now pays his half of the mortgage. "Everyone just assumed that I was entitled to everything," she says. Some of her friends, spooked by her experience, have since taken out wills and life insurance. Amelia's ordeal highlights the legal vacuum faced by co-habiting couples in England and Wales. Currently, unmarried partners have few legal rights if they separate or one dies without a will. But last month, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched a 10-week consultation on proposals to change that. Under the plans, if one partner dies, the other could inherit their assets in certain circumstances. In a break-up, one partner could be entitled to a lump-sum payment from the other. The consultation is the first hurdle on a potentially lengthy road to becoming law, but if enacted, the changes would mark a huge shift. Countries such as Sweden and Australia already have similar rules. Campaign groups hope the proposals could make life easier for widowed partners and those trapped in abusive relationships. However, some question the need for a new system when marriage and civil partnerships already offer full legal joining. Others want to know how the law would work and whether couples could opt out.