Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Common Law Advice
Thank you for this service! I wanted to know what the common law Law was for my situation. I have been living with my boyfriend for close to 3 years in Virginia. We are not married although have been engaged once (no longer engaged).. I have put in a good deal of my earnings into the house, groceries, bills, remodeling the house, ect. He is military and we will be moving to either GA or NY in the next few months. What common law rights, if any and at what point chronologically, do I have? Do the laws change for each state? Does the clock start over if we move to a new state? And how should I protect myself from being tossed out on the street with nothing because he owns the house?? Is there a form of some kind that I need to be able to prove that we have lived together for so long? Thank you for answering this question in confidence. I would prefer an email response as we do live together and it would create some tention to deal with it on the phone. Thank you so much!!!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Common Law Advice
Virginia does not recognize common law marriages except in certain limited circumstances where they occur in other states which DO recognize common law marriages.
So far, to my knowledge, Virginia has not had any "palimony" cases but, if and when it does, the case would be decided on contracts law in general, which is a bit too complicated to explain on a bulletin board.
Laws do vary on this from state to state. As to whether the clock starts again, I don't know. It depends on that state's law.
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