Opposite Sex Civil Partnership Question

[Mario149]

My gf and I are British and live in the UK. If we went to the Netherlands and registered a civil partnership (you can only have same sex ones here in the UK)....

1) would it be recognized back here in the UK?
and
2) could it be converted to a marriage at a later date as a CP can in the UK?

I know that same sex CPs from Netherlands are recognized here, but can't find anything on opposite sex ones.

Technically I know that we could get married straight off, but for the purposes of this discussion let's assume we don't want to right now and would rather keep it for later.

[Mario149]

PurpleMoonlight said:

You want the benefits and risks of marriage without being married?

For the sake of argument yes

[Mario149]

paintman said:

But that would be a marriage which the OP doesn't want to do 'for the sake of argument'.

There's always one isn't there? Maybe we would like to enjoy the legal benefits of being partners officially as it appears you can in some countries, but would rather save a wedding ceremony etc for when we have more time and are in a better position to do it how we want to make it a special day? We've just had a baby daughter and truth be told it just dawned on me that if I get knocked over by a bus tomorrow my partner and child would lose out on a big chunk of money due to inheritance tax purely because even though we live as a married couple (indeed technically she is my common law wife, apparently that happens after you've lived with someone for 6 months or more), we haven't signed a bit of marriage paper saying as much.

[Mario149]

Jasandjules said:

I am not sure what you mean OP (perhaps I am too tired) but you can simply have a registry office marriage?

As per my other reply, essentially I'm trying to see if there is a way to get the legal and tax benefits of being in an "official union" (for want of a better way of putting it) while leaving the marriage bit for a time in the future when we can do it and really enjoy it.

[Mario149]

eatcustard said:

Its about £100 to get married

Cost of a ceremony (or reception for that matter) is not the issue

[Mario149]

Tom_C76 said:

There's no such thing as common law wife in uk law AIUI, and civil partnerships don't offer as much protection as marriage on the death of one partner, hence the desire of the gay community for the right to marry. Pensions in particular treat them very differently.

There is (or used to be) it just doesn't really give you anything useful. Although I may well be wrong. Anyway, all I know is that it's a choice on some online form picklists for some reason

[Mario149]

Jasandjules said:

Well, with a child you also need to be married to have rights as a father I think.

I'm on our daughter birth certificate as the father, so I think I'm all sorted. Since we're not married though, I had to be there, whereas if we were married, my partner could have gone on her own and put me on. Funnily enough, they just ask you if you're married, you don't have to produce evidence (or even proof of who you are), so apart from breaking a law or 2 , there was nothing to stop her doing it own her own and me not taking some unpaid time off work

Jasandjules said:

Just pop to the registry office, £100 or so to get it done. Then you are married and have the legal rights you desire.

Later on when you can afford to have the "proper" marriage, then crack on and just have the ceremony etc and party and whatnot.. The full works for the day.

Suspect this is probably the way we'll end up going

[Mario149]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Mario149 said:

eatcustard said:

Its about £100 to get married

Cost of a ceremony (or reception for that matter) is not the issue

Then what is?

I just typed out a full reply to this but realised it was a bit too personal for the interweb so have deleted it and written this. Look, I know it seems strange, but can you just take my word for it that there are several reasons for her and me as to why we might want a legal union now with its benefits without it officially being a marriage. The reasons are personal, non-nefarious and dare I say it possibly quite romantic.

It seems that this may not be possible and I'll have to run the risk of London bus drivers or just do the civil ceremony on the down low and a vow renewal thing at a later date

[Mario149]

I appreciate that it may be co fusing, but with respect, you don't have to understand it and I'm not going to post our life details that might enable you to. That was not the point of starting this thread. We've gone way off topic. I started this thread to essentially find out whether there was a legal Union we could enter into (either British or that would be recognised in the UK) that would allow my partner to not be subject to IHT without us having to get married.

[Mario149]

Kateg28 said:

I am very happily co habiting with someone with no legal status other than joint owners of a house and a mortgage (and I pay half before all of you men think I am being parasitic) but we will get married someday because we want to avoid Inheritance Tax and I want legal status of Next of Kin in the event of it being required. Not because we want to declare our commitment to each other, don't feel the need to make a big deal out of it.

And we want a party

This is basically my situation, the only difference being that I want to avoid IHT now without having to wait to get married like you. Not sure why that's so difficult to understand. It may be trying to have our cake and eat it, but I just wanted to investigate the possibility

[Mario149]

Found this on the BBC so thought I'd post it here for reference on this topic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35352629