Are Roommates Common Law?

Roommate agreements are legally binding in court except for clauses that contain division of chores. A court will ignore who takes out the trash or cleans the bathroom, but the court will generally uphold the agreement. You can find roommate agreement forms online or you can have an attorney draft one for you.

Can you live together and not be common-law?

A couple can live together without being married. But even if they have been together for one, three, 15 or 40 years, and even if they have several children together, they are never “automatically” married. This means that, if they break up, common-law couples don't have some of the protections married couples have.

What is considered living common-law?

"Living common-law" means you are living with a person who is not your spouse, but with whom you have a conjugal relationship, and to whom at least one of the following situations applies: They have been living with you in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 continuous months.