On 5 June 2026, the Ministry of Justice opened a ten-week consultation, A Fairer End to Relationships, proposing fundamental change to the position of unmarried partners on death. The announcement was made by the Justice Secretary, David Lammy (press release).
Under current law, the survivor’s position depends on how assets were owned. Anything held jointly, a home owned as joint tenants or a joint account, passes to the survivor automatically by survivorship and is unaffected.
But anything in the deceased’s sole name, and the deceased’s share of any property held as tenants in common, passes under the intestacy rules to the deceased’s children first (including adopted children), or if there are none, to parents, then siblings, then more distant family in a strict statutory order. The unmarried partner inherits none of it.
Their only route is an Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claim, which is discretionary, contested and slower than the equivalent spousal route.
In the Government’s own words, “bereaved unmarried partners will have automatic rights to inheritance if a partner dies without a will”. To qualify, the press release says cohabitants “should have lived together for at least three years or share a child to access the framework”, and “courts must also be satisfied couples are in an enduring family relationship”.
That last phrase is worth noting. The “enduring family relationship” wording is borrowed from the Scottish Law Commission’s 2022 Report on Cohabitation and, through that report, from section 144(4)(b) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and section 29(3) of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.
The reform is significant in scale. Around 3.6 million couples in the UK now live together without being married or in a civil partnership, up from 1.5 million in 1996 (Commons Library briefing SN03372). Successive Law Commission reports (2007 and 2011) have recommended this kind of change. Neither was implemented. The 2022 Women and Equalities Committee report described the current law as “expensive, unclear, complicated and unfair”.
The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 14 August 2026.
A long road, not an imminent change
It is important not to read this as imminent law. The consultation is the start of a long process, and reform in this area has a poor record of getting anywhere.
The Law Commission recommended a cohabitation financial remedies scheme in 2007. The Government deferred it in 2008 and declined to take it forward in 2011, and as at the Law Commission’s most recent annual report that 2007 report is still listed as “Pending”, eighteen years on. The cohabitant elements of the Commission’s 2011 intestacy report were deliberately dropped when the rest was enacted in the Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014. As recently as November 2022 the Government formally rejected reform, saying it would want to consult first. This consultation is that promised consultation, so the process is at its beginning.
A realistic estimate is several years at minimum if the reform proceeds at all, with a real possibility that it is deferred, watered down, or dropped. Estate planning should be based on the law as it stands today, not on the proposal.
What this means for estate planning
The proposal would change who inherits in millions of British households. People most directly affected include:
- unmarried couples without a current will,
- adult children of a parent who has a long-term partner from a later relationship,
- executors and beneficiaries of estates currently being administered, where the deceased had a cohabiting partner,
- anyone whose existing will was drafted on the assumption that an unmarried partner would be excluded by default.
Whether the reform strengthens or weakens your position depends on which side of the line you are on. In either case, a properly drafted will remains the only way for the deceased to decide who inherits, rather than leaving it to the rules in force at the time of death.
A full analysis
We have published a longer comparative analysis of the consultation, including what Scotland, Ireland, Brazil, Quebec and New Zealand have learned from comparable reforms, and where the disputes are likely to arise in England. It is available here.
If you are concerned about how the proposed reforms may affect an existing estate plan, or if you are dealing with the estate of someone who had an unmarried partner, our specialist contentious probate team offers a free, no-obligation discussion of your circumstances. Many of our cases are funded on a genuine 100% No Win No Fee basis. Call 0161 515 7329 or request a callback through the Fifty Six Law website.
Article written and researched by Paul Wood FRSA
This content is for general informational purposes only, reflects the opinion of the author, and does not constitute legal advice or create a relationship of solicitor and client. For legal advice, please contact the specialist solicitors at Fifty Six Law.
