now there is
a better together
We want your life to be great
It sounds almost too good to be true: a law enabling Ireland's couples to choose their own commitments, and join their lives together based on a secure legal foundation.
A state marriage is what a couple get from the government. A WeDo Marriage is what a couple create for themselves.
In law, a WeDo Marriage is a Cohabitant Agreement. In life, it's the decision to choose commitment, and the life of committed love lived together afterwards.
WeDo Marriage Limited does not actually create WeDo Marriages. Couples do. We just help couples make it happen.
Biggest change in Ireland's marriage laws – ever
What they are saying about the new couple relationship law
Dermot Ahern TD, former Minister
for Justice & Law Reform
"This most one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation to be enacted since independence. It provides enhanced rights and protections for many thousands of Irish men and women."
Irish Times (19 July 2010)
Muriel Walls, solicitor
McCann Fitzgerald, Dublin
"There has been little media attention
about the legal changes for cohabiting couples. This Act encourages couples effectively to write their own rules for their relationship".
Sunday Business Post (16 January 2011)
Anne O'Neill, solicitor
Family Law Consultants, Cork
"The Act recognises officially Cohabitant Agreements. Provided both cohabitants have the benefit of independent legal advice then the court will consider such Agreements to be valid and enforceable."
Family Law Ireland (July 2010)
You've chosen your partner carefully
Now carefully choose your commitments
For a long time there was only one choice: the state marriage-and-divorce system of the family law courts or nothing. Now there are three ways to choose commitment. Wouldn't you prefer the choice that gives you the most choices?
STATE MARRIAGE
If you're an opposite-sex couple, you can sign your two names to the state marriage contract
But your names are all you're allowed to write. The 'terms and conditions' of the contract are fixed by the state family law system.
CIVIL PARTNERSHIP
Again, it's a one-size-fits-all, take-it-or-leave-it, pre-written contract – only it's for same-sex rather than opposite-sex couples.
You can't personalise a civil partnership contract. And you certainly can't change it afterwards.
COHABITANT AGREEMENT
You are free to choose your legal commitments to each other.
So the only words above your signatures are words you have chosen to put there yourselves to reflect your own personal values and circumstances.
OK, show us the good bits
You'll find them in Section 202 of the Cohabitation Act 2010
It came into effect on January 1st, 2011. It's got hundreds of pages and a very long name (the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010). But all the good stuff about creating your own legal commitments as a couple is in one short part – Section 202.
You can now have your own relationship commitments recognised in law.
So rather than 'get married' couples can now 'create a marriage'. Only it's not called marriage. It's called a Cohabitant Agreement.
The agreement you and your partner create is recognised as a legally binding contract.
Your agreement is governed by 'the general laws of contract'. So it's like every other contract you ever have signed.
Your agreement is 100% free of the family law court system that rules over state marriages, civil partnerships and divorces.
An agreement that is 'seriously unjust' to one partner can be modified by the courts. (Quite right, too.)
You'll each need legal advice before signing your agreement. (Also a good idea.)
When 'just living together' is no longer an option
Time to start deciding before you continue sliding
In addition to the three couple commitment options now available, State Marriage, Civil Partnership or Cohabitant Agreement, there's also a fourth option that – if you do nothing – picks you. It's called the Cohabitant Redress Scheme.
According to Sections 171-202 of the new law, your relationship is covered by Cohabitant Redress Scheme if you are:
Living with someone for three years and have a child or children together
Living with someone for five years without any children together
Under the Scheme you or your partner may now make a legal claim in the family law courts against each other's income, pension or property.
And, when one of you passes on, the other can make a claim against his or her estate.
So even being dead is no escape!
Just 'drifting along' without making a legal commitment with your partner means that, over time, your relationship comes under the Cohabitant Redress Scheme.
You've got a lot to talk about
Choosing your commitments, commiting to your future
With a Cohabitant Agreement, the law is there to ensure you keep the commitments you make to each other – and not to impose on you other people's ideas of what those commitments should be. In effect and in practical reality, if not in name, it's a marriage you create for yourselves and a future you choose to live together.
Your Cohabitant Agreement expresses your vision of your shared life together.
It's 'only a piece of paper', but it's got your life and dreams written all over it.
To help get you started, we have provided a free Cohabitant Agreement template with sample clauses in Google Docs.
When you each sign your Cohabitant Agreement, you are creating a legal relationship with one another. So:
It's important you each receive independent legal advice from a solicitor.
And it's also a good idea to work with an accountant or financial advisor who will help you move forward together from financial singledom to coupledom.
Of course, before you do all that, you'll need to have some conversations with each other. Have you each found the one person you want to spend your one life with?
Your journey to commitment may be the important journey you'll ever take – and one you will want to celebrate in front of family and friends.
Everything you need to create a future together that's
great for both of you – and fair to each of you.
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