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Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
What triggers "living together" for purposes of becoming common-law spouses? What keeps it from triggering if you're just roomies (the idea that I might have been deemed married to my freshman college roommate has made my skin crawl)? Does there have to be some sort of "holding oneself out as married or a permanent couple" element to it? Or does the CAN gov't feel OK speculating on who is and who isn't having sex?
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Texas still has common law marriage. Stems back from the days where it was impractical to find a preacher or a judge. There are three elements (amended to include man and woman language in the 90s so those homos didn't get any ideas about loopholes). 1) Live together in the state of Texas. 2) Have an agreement to be married. 3) Hold yourselves out to the public as married. No time limitiation on living together, but you do have to bring forth the claim within two years of the marriage ending or else it will not be recognized by Texas courts. You can go down to the courthouse and file a statement that helps prove that you're common law married, but you don't have to. And when you split up, you can fight in court and get a formal divorce or you can just drift apart for two years and act as if the whole thing never happened.
My godparents spent two years in court fighting over whether or not she was entitled to community property based on a common law marriage. I'd never even heard a suggestion that they were married in the 23 years that they lived together until she filed suit. She ultimately lost.
