How long do a couple have to live togeather under the same roof before it is considered a common law marrage?

Answer 1

MD has no common law provision in marriage.

The following website provides state by state definition of common-law marriage. For example, in Texas:

"A man and woman who want to establish a common-law marriage must sign a form provided by the county clerk. In addition, they must (1) agree to be married, (2) cohabit, and (3) represent to others that they are married."

Answer 2

Common law marriage is not as common as many people believe. Living together does not mean you have a common law marriage. There are strict requirements that have to be met for common law marriages to be considered valid.
Additionally, only a few states in the United States recognize common law marriages.

Currently common law marriages are recognized by Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington, D.C.

Generally, there are four requirements for a valid common law marriage. Just living together isn't enough to validate a common law marriage.

Requirement One: You must live together.

Requirement Two: You must present yourselves to others as a married couple. Some ways of doing this are by using the same last name, referring to one another as husband or wife, and filing a joint tax return.

Requirement Three: Although the time frame is not defined, you have to be together for a significant period of time.

Requirement Four: You must intend to be married.

In the U.S., every state is Constitutionally required to recognize as valid a common law marriage that was recognized in another state.

These states have restrictions and only recognize common law marriages performed/created by a certain date:

Georgia, January 1, 1997
Idaho, January 1, 1996
Ohio, October 10, 1991
Oklahoma, November 1, 1998. Whether the Oklahoma law on this will be upheld is still unknown
Pennsylvania, January 1, 2005.
New Hampshire only recognizes commonlaw marriages for probate purposes.

Answer 3

First of all, most states do not recognize common law marriage. 37 states either did at one time or still do recognize it. Most do not.

Second, the timeframes vary from state. Your local Social Security office would be able to tell you if your state recognizes common law marriages and how long you have to live together to meet the requirement.

Third, there is more to common law marriage than just living together. In most (if not all) states that recognize common law marriages, you would have had to have held yourselves out as man and wife to the community. That means that you introduced yourself as "Mr. John Smith and this is my wife, Susan.".

You also would have to have other evidence that you were holding yourselves out as husband and wife such joint bank accounts ("Mr. and Mrs. John Smith), joint deeds in property, filed joint tax returns etc.

Also, there are some serious misconceptions about common law. For example, you DO have to get an actual divorce if you live in a common law state and you were common law married. You can't just pick up and move away and turn around and marry someone else without having first divorced.

You also are not automatically divorced when you go to prison and you were common law married in a common law state. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen people that thought this.

Answer 4

Common Law Marriage is only recognized in 16 states, and there is no set amount of years in ANY of the states. It's not about how long you've been together, but what you have done while you were together. Basically you have to prove that you took on responsibilities like a married couple, intended to be married and that upheld yourselves as a married couple. Check out this link it will help explain things.\

http://www.unmarried.org/common.html

Answer 5

Most states don't recognize "common law" marriage; for the rules in your particular state, try googling "common law marriage in " or something like this. Much of the time, there are other requirements besides simply living together that come into play when it comes to common law marriage.

Answer 6

I thought that the law was 7 years, but since I have heard that there is no longer a law regarding a time limit on common law marriages.

Answer 7

It depends on what state you live in. Many states do not recognize a "common law" marriage as a legal marriage.

Answer 8

depends on the state some it's 2 others it's 7. some don't recognize common law.

Answer 9

most common law states 7 years.

Answer 10

It varies by state, and some states don't recognize it at all. Do a search online for common law and see what you find.