Shared Households: A New Paradigm for Thinking about the Reform of Domestic Property Relations

When the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was being debated in Parliament, the chance was taken by a number of members of both Houses to raise, again, the plight of the female cohabitant who, at the end of a period of cohabitation (however lengthy) does not, unlike her married sister, have access to the divorce courts and thereby to property orders, which allow for the redistribution of property between the parties (however economically vulnerable she might be).1