Understanding Common Law Marriage in North Carolina

Learning about common law marriage may seem far removed from the world of your “normal” business interactions. However, just as cultural differences can impact contract negotiation and other business contracts, understanding how the system handles legal marriage can be a key to successfully navigating this world. Insight into whether NC recognizes common law marriages can provide valuable information.

Common law marriage is a “de facto” marriage. Essentially, this means that even though a couple did not go through the process of a wedding or any official government recording system, there still may be legal recognition of their relationship by virtue of the fact that they have lived together for a while. This recognition may be important since there are legal advantages to being in a recognized marriage. This is why it is important to know if a place “does nc recognize common law marriage.” For example, there are tax advantages to being married that would no longer apply if a couple got divorced.

Since there are certain benefits that come with being legally married, it is useful in many ways for employers and other professionals to know how the system is going to classify all of the people that they interact with on a daily basis. While common law marriages are often of interest in inheritance situations, there are other instances that you may think about as you work with clients.

For example, imagine that you see a couple applying for a loan at your bank. Does NC recognize common law marriage; could the couple somehow be the same as a legally married couple? This is a positive, since they might be a good risk for your bank to loan money to. But what if they became divorced soon after that? In many places, a divorce itself is not going to impact the pool of assets that could be drawn on during the marriage. So it may be important to know more about the couple’s situation in places like North Carolina when issuing loans.

To further illustrate this, let’s say that an Indonesian company is doing business with NC. In Indonesia, there is no legal context for common law marriage. Therefore, the couple would have been seen as one unit during the marriage, and all marital property would be the property of both parties. However, if the company that is doing business in NC were to base its agreements with the married couple instead of with the company, they might have their legal obligations confused when the couple had an amicable divorce. In Indonesia, they are divorced, but in the U.S., it is being treated as if they still remain married.

Culturally, there can also be very different attitudes towards marital separation and divorce. In some cultures, people may seek reconciliation and reunification after a period of separation that can be months or years, and in this situation a company that declared bankruptcy might have additional debts to pay because it was tying itself to a separated spouse and might have declared bankruptcy at the spouse’s urging. By understanding the marriage laws and customs of these countries, the company would have been able to avoid this legal situation.

In NC, common law marriages require the couple to have lived together for two years within the state and have presented themselves as married in order to be protected under the law. If the couple participated in a marriage-like relationship, the law might not see them as a legal marriage couple, and therefore, the assets would be considered separate if a divorce was filed.

People who are in the position to know about the situations that these couples find themselves in might be seen as too prying; however, with better education about these situations, professionals will be able to avoid unfavorable results from situations like these.