Common Law Marriage - Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania recently passed legislation to ban common law marriage after January 1, 2005. That does not affect any common law marriage entered into prior to that date. Read the statute and the Pennsylvania requirements for common law marriage below.

However, if you are living together, at a minimum you must have a cohabitation agreement, which you could draft yourself with easy-to-use software like that offered by Standard Legal .

Pennsylvania Law

Title 23, Section 1103 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes states: "No common-law marriage contracted after January 1, 2005, shall be valid. Nothing in this part shall be deemed or taken to render any common-law marriage otherwise lawful and contracted on or before January 1, 2005, invalid." (23 Pa. Cons. Stat § 1103 (2009)).

This statute does not affect any common law marraige that fulfilled or entered into prior to January 1, 2005. Pennsylvania’s common law marraige requirements before this law was passed were stated by the Pennsylvania Suprme Court. It said: In Pennsylvania, a common law marriage can only be created by “an exchange of words in the present tense [verba in praesenti], spoken with the specific purpose that the legal relationship of husband and wife is created by that.” (Staudenmayer v. Staudenmayer, 552 Pa. 253, 714 A.2d 1016, 1021 (Pa. 1998)). As stated in Staudenmayer: The common law marriage contract does not require any specific form of words, and all that is essential is proof of an agreement to enter into the legal relationship of marriage at the present time. (Staudenmayer, 714 A.2d at 1020 (citation omitted)). If there is no evidence of such an in verba praesenti exchange,  a rebuttable presumption of common law marriage can be established by proof of constant cohabitation and a reputation of marriage that is “not partial or divided but is broad and general.” The Staudenmayer court observed that where there is testimony regarding verba in praesenti, the presumption based on cohabitation and reputation for marriage is inapplicable: [T]he burden rests with the party claiming a common law marriage to produce clear and convincing evidence of the exchange of words in the present tense spoken with the purpose of establishing the relationship of husband and wife, in other words, the marriage contract. In those situations, the rebuttable presumption in favor of a common law marriage upon sufficient proof of constant cohabitation and reputation for marriage does not arise. (Staudenmayer, 714 A.2d at 1021)).

For the long term, couples living together should consider a Living Will, Living Trust or simple Will. You don’t have to hire an attorney if you’re the average American. There are attorney-supervised services, such as Legal Zoom, who will prepare these more complex documents for you, and you can save up to 85% from regular attorney’s fees.

Common law marriage is still recognized in the following states and Washington D.C.:

(Click on any link to see the common law requirements for that state.)