What about those Five Gold Rings?

During the past 200 years Parliament has focused its attention on a wide range of issues affecting people's personal lives in relation to marriage, divorce and sexuality. Often Parliament has passed legislation in response to campaigns by outside groups and organisations which have been anxious to protect vulnerable individuals. It has increasingly legislated on controversial issues where there have been many diverse, strongly-held opinions to take into account.

In the middle of the 18th century marriages could take place anywhere provided they were conducted before an ordained clergyman of the Church of England. This encouraged the practice of secret marriages which did not have parental consent and which were often bigamous. In 1753, however, the Marriage Act, promoted by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, declared that all marriage ceremonies must be conducted by a minister in a parish church or chapel of the Church of England to be legally binding.

No marriage of a person under the age of 21 was valid without the consent of parents or guardians. Clergymen who disobeyed the law were liable for 14 years transportation. Although the Jewish and Quakers were exempted from the 1753 Act, it required religious non-conformists and Catholics to be married in Anglican churches. This restriction was eventually removed by Parliament in the Marriage Act of 1836 which allowed non-conformists and Catholics to be married in their own places of worship.

In 1929, in response to a campaign by the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, Parliament raised the age limit to 16 for both sexes in the Ages of Marriage Act. This is still the minimum age.

The Civil Partnership Act 2004, for example, granted civil partnerships to same-sex couples in the United Kingdom with rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage. Although the Act was intended to apply only to England and Wales, the devolved Scottish Parliament passed a Legislative Consent Motion which allowed Westminster to legislate on behalf of Scotland.

In 2013, Parliament passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act which introduced civil marriage for same-sex couples in England and Wales. The legislation allowed religious organisations to opt in to marry same-sex couples should they wish to do so and protected religious organisations and their representatives from successful legal challenge if they did not wish to marry same-sex couples. The legislation also enabled civil partners to convert their civil partnership into marriage and transsexual people to change their legal gender without necessarily having to end their existing marriage.  In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament has legislated to allow same-sex marriages. The Northern Ireland Assembly has not legislated to allow the marriage of same-sex couples in Northern Ireland. 

January is often a time of separations, so it is very important to ensure that a certain level of empathy is present when dealing with tenants in rented properties who no longer want to be together. Whilst, the details of the separation are not made clear; a couple may have created a truly wonderful home, yet circumstances drive them apart and letting agents often have to deal with the fall out and break down of the relationship. The letting agent is not a trained counsellor and with emotions running high, the situation can be quite difficult to navigate. Empathy Empathy Empathy - must be observed at all times, whilst remembering that the details of the change of tenancy need to be dealt with carefully.

Common issues when couples separate are as follows:-

1. Who is staying and who is leaving? Perhaps one person has already left.

2. Is one of the tenants applying for benefits or some kind of assistance? If so, check that the landlord’s mortgage lender (if there is one) and insurance provider accept tenants to be in receipt of benefits.

3. Who paid the deposit? Often this has not been documented anywhere, so it could be quite a contentious issue as both parties may try to claim “ownership”. Be sure that there is no doubt in your mind about who should be receiving the deposit.

4. Paperwork - with changes to the the tenancy remember to c create an addendum or surrender for the amendments being made. The deposit certificate must be amended and new prescribed information needs to be re-issued.

5. If both tenants wish to leave, use a Deed of Surrender to bring the tenancy to a tidy end.

Please note that anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse, different kinds of abuse that can happen in different contexts. The most prevalent type of domestic abuse occurs in relationships. So if the tenants are experiencing domestic violence, there are many organisations that can assist.

Some of the key information for this blog came from Parliament.gov.uk