You’ve been together for fifteen years. You share a house, a bank account, and two kids. Your neighbors call you husband and wife. Your families treat you as married. Surely, by now, Michigan considers you married – right?

No. Not even close.

Michigan abolished common law marriage effective January 1, 1957. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived together, whether you share finances, or whether everyone in your life treats you as a married couple. If you didn’t get a marriage license and have a ceremony, Michigan does not consider you married – period.

The blunt truth is this: if you are married, you’re married. If you’re not, you’re not.

Michigan law draws a hard line. But the full picture is more complicated than most people realize – especially if you moved here from a state that does recognize common law marriage, or if you’ve built a life with someone without ever walking down the aisle.

Here’s what Michigan couples actually need to know.

Michigan Ended Common Law Marriage in 1957 – And It’s Not Coming Back

Michigan’s legislature eliminated common law marriage nearly seven decades ago. MCL 551.2 makes this explicit: after January 1, 1957, consent alone is not sufficient to create a legal marriage. A valid Michigan marriage requires both a marriage license and solemnization as prescribed by law.

Before 1957, couples could establish a legally recognized marriage without a license or ceremony – simply by living together, holding themselves out as married, and intending to be married. That door closed permanently.

Michigan courts have consistently affirmed this. In Carnes v. Sheldon, 109 Mich. App. 204 (1981), the court confirmed that common law marriages are valid in Michigan only if contracted before January 1, 1957 – Michigan has since refused to recognize them. The court in Tigner v. Tigner, 90 Mich. App. 787 (1979), clarified that the statutory cutoff did not retroactively affect common law marriages entered into before that date, but no new ones could be created after it. And as recently as Lueck v. Lueck, 328 Mich. App. 399 (2019), Michigan courts reaffirmed that consent alone cannot create a marriage after the 1957 abolition.

Today, no amount of time living together creates a marriage in Michigan. Ten years, twenty years, forty years – it doesn’t matter. There is no threshold, no magic number, and no exception carved out for long-term cohabitation.

This catches people off guard constantly. Many assume that after a certain number of years – seven is the popular myth – the state automatically recognizes the relationship as a marriage. That’s never been true in Michigan, and it’s not true in any state. Even in states that do recognize common law marriage, there’s no automatic time trigger. It requires specific elements like mutual agreement, cohabitation, and public representation as married.

In Michigan, none of that matters. The only path to a legally recognized marriage is a marriage license issued by a county clerk and a ceremony performed by an authorized officiant under MCL 551.2.

When Michigan Will Recognize an Out-of-State Common Law Marriage

Here’s where it gets interesting – and where the law surprises people who relocated to Michigan.

Michigan generally follows the rule that a marriage valid where it is contracted is valid everywhere. This principle is rooted in the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Art. IV, § 1), which requires each state to give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. It’s further codified in 28 U.S.C. § 1738, which mandates that properly authenticated acts and proceedings of one state be given the same effect in other states.

Michigan courts have applied this principle directly to common law marriages. In People v. Schmidt, 228 Mich. App. 463 (1998), the Michigan Court of Appeals recognized that Michigan will honor a common law marriage validly contracted in another state, provided it complies with the laws of that state. Similarly, in In re Toth Estate, the court upheld the validity of a marriage contracted in another jurisdiction, emphasizing Michigan’s general rule of recognizing marriages valid where contracted.

Couples move to Michigan from states like Colorado, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, and Utah – all of which currently recognize some form of common law marriage. The District of Columbia does as well. New Hampshire recognizes common law marriages, but only for inheritance purposes.

The critical word is valid. You can’t simply claim you were common-law married in Colorado because you visited Denver for a weekend. You need to have actually met that state’s legal requirements – which typically include mutual agreement to be married, cohabitation in that state, and holding yourselves out publicly as a married couple while living there.

If you did meet those requirements, your common law marriage doesn’t evaporate at the Michigan border. You carry the same legal rights as any other married couple: property division protections, spousal support eligibility, inheritance rights, and – if the relationship ends – the requirement to go through a formal divorce.

That last point surprises people most. If you have a valid common law marriage from another state and you want to separate in Michigan, you need an actual divorce. You can’t just move apart and call it done. The marriage is real, and dissolving it requires the same legal process as any other divorce.

One important caveat: the Full Faith and Credit Clause is not absolute. In Hare v. Starr Commonwealth Corp., 291 Mich. App. 206 (2011), the court noted that while the clause generally requires recognition of sister-state judgments, it does not mandate recognition where doing so would violate the public policy of the forum state. For common law marriages, however, Michigan courts have consistently applied the “valid where contracted” rule – the public policy exception has historically been invoked in other contexts, such as Michigan’s now-unenforceable statutory prohibitions on same-sex marriage under MCL 551.272. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), those provisions – while still technically on the books – are no longer enforceable, as the Court held that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The bottom line: if you established a valid common law marriage in a state that recognizes them, Michigan will almost certainly honor it.

The “Yours Is Yours, Hers Is Hers” Reality for Unmarried Couples

For couples who’ve never been legally married – in Michigan or anywhere else – the legal landscape is stark.

The reality for unmarried couples in Michigan is simple: yours is yours, theirs is theirs, and there is no “we” in the eyes of the law – except for what you voluntarily create together. Michigan law doesn’t generate any automatic property rights, support obligations, or inheritance protections for unmarried partners. You are, legally speaking, strangers.

That means:

• No equitable property division. When a married couple divorces in Michigan, MCL 552.401 requires the court to divide marital property equitably. Unmarried couples get none of that. If your name isn’t on the deed, the title, or the account, you likely have no legal claim — even if you contributed financially for decades.

• No spousal support. Michigan courts can award alimony in a divorce. They cannot order anything resembling support when an unmarried couple separates. You supported your partner through medical school? Stayed home to raise children? Sacrificed career advancement? Without a marriage, there’s no legal mechanism to address that imbalance.

• No inheritance rights. This is the one that devastates families. Under Michigan’s Estates and Protected Individuals Code (MCL 700.2101 et seq.), intestate succession — the law that determines who inherits when someone dies without a will — recognizes spouses, children, parents, and siblings. An unmarried partner isn’t on the list. At all.

If your partner of twenty years dies without a will, their estate passes to their children, parents, or siblings – not to you. You could be left with nothing, including being forced out of a home you shared for decades but that was titled only in their name.

What Unmarried Michigan Couples Can Do to Protect Themselves

The legal framework for unmarried couples is harsh, but it’s not hopeless. Michigan law provides several tools that create real protections – if you use them intentionally.

Cohabitation Agreements: The Contract Michigan Courts Respect

Think of a cohabitation agreement as the prenup for couples who never got married. It’s a written contract between two people that defines how property, finances, and responsibilities will be handled during the relationship and if it ends.

Michigan courts recognize that unmarried cohabitants may enter into agreements to define their financial and property rights – but enforceability comes with conditions that most people don’t anticipate. The agreement must meet standard contract requirements: offer, acceptance, consideration, and mutual assent. Critically, Michigan courts require that the agreement be supported by independent consideration beyond the mere existence of the relationship itself. In other words, “we’re a couple” isn’t enough. The consideration must involve something concrete – monetary contributions, services, property transfers, or other tangible commitments. Courts in Hierholzer v. Sardy, 128 Mich. App. 259 (1983) and Carnes v. Sheldon, 109 Mich. App. 204 (1981) have reinforced this requirement.

A well-drafted cohabitation agreement can address property ownership and division if you separate, financial responsibilities during the relationship, what happens to jointly purchased assets, how shared debts will be allocated, and even pet ownership – an issue Michigan courts otherwise treat as personal property division.

Both parties should have the opportunity to consult independent legal counsel, and the agreement should be in writing. While Michigan law doesn’t require all cohabitation agreements to be written, the statute of frauds (MCL 566.132) means that agreements involving property transfers or obligations that can’t be performed within one year must be in writing to be enforceable. As a practical matter, an oral cohabitation agreement is extremely difficult to prove and enforce – put it in writing.

Two important limitations to understand:

First, agreements where the primary consideration is the exchange of sexual services are unenforceable as against public policy. However, the existence of a romantic or intimate relationship doesn’t automatically void the agreement – Michigan courts will enforce agreements that are supported by independent consideration and aren’t primarily founded on the relationship itself. The distinction matters: a properly drafted agreement focuses on financial and property arrangements, not the intimate aspects of the relationship. Featherstone v. Steinhoff, 226 Mich. App. 584 (1997) draws this line clearly.

Second – and this is what catches people off guard – Michigan courts will not allow recovery based on implied contracts or quantum meruit between unmarried cohabitants. Per Deschane v. Klug, 344 Mich. App. 744 (2022), permitting implied contract claims would effectively resurrect common law marriage through the back door, which Michigan abolished in 1957. What this means in plain language: if you don’t have a written agreement and the relationship ends, you cannot go to court and argue “we had an understanding” or “I contributed to the household for fifteen years, so I’m entitled to a share.” Without an actual agreement, you’re likely out of luck.

This is exactly why cohabitation agreements matter so much. They’re not just nice to have – they may be the only enforceable mechanism protecting your financial interests if the relationship ends.

Joint Ownership, Beneficiary Designations, and Powers of Attorney

Without a marriage, nothing happens automatically. Every protection must be created deliberately.

Joint ownership with rights of survivorship ensures that property passes directly to your partner when you die – outside of probate, outside of intestate succession, and outside the reach of family members who might object. This applies to real estate, bank accounts, and investment accounts.

Beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts let you direct assets to your partner regardless of what intestate succession law would otherwise dictate. But these designations must be updated – outdated beneficiary forms naming an ex-spouse or a parent are one of the most common estate planning failures we see.

Powers of attorney are critical. Without a financial power of attorney under Michigan’s Uniform Power of Attorney Act (MCL 556.201 et seq.) and a patient advocate designation (MCL 700.5506), your unmarried partner has zero legal authority to make financial or medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. A spouse would have at least some default standing. An unmarried partner has none.

Estate Planning for Unmarried Partners: Avoiding the Intestate Disaster

Estate planning isn’t optional for unmarried couples – it’s the only thing standing between your partner and complete legal exclusion.

At minimum, unmarried couples need a will or trust that explicitly names your partner as a beneficiary, powers of attorney (both financial and medical) designating your partner as your agent, updated beneficiary designations on every account and policy, and consideration of joint ownership or transfer-on-death designations for major assets.

A comprehensive trust-based estate plan – which at Boroja, Bernier & Associates typically ranges from $2,500-$5,500 – can create a structure that protects your partner far more effectively than a will alone. Trusts avoid probate, maintain privacy, and are significantly harder to challenge than wills.

Without these documents, Michigan’s intestate succession law controls. And intestate succession does not recognize your partner at all.

Real-Life Scenarios That Surprise People Who Moved to Michigan

Consider this: A couple lives together in Texas for twelve years. They meet all of Texas’s common law marriage requirements – they agreed to be married, lived together as spouses, and represented themselves as married to their community. They never got a marriage license because, in Texas, they didn’t need one.

Then they move to Oakland County for a job opportunity.

In Michigan, their common law marriage is recognized under the Full Faith and Credit Clause and Michigan’s own case law – as confirmed in People v. Schmidt, 228 Mich. App. 463 (1998). They have the same rights as any married couple – property protections, inheritance rights, and divorce requirements. But proving that marriage exists can be complicated, especially without documentation from Texas confirming their status.

Now consider a different couple: They’ve lived together in Michigan for twenty years. Same house, same finances, same life – but they never married, and they never lived in a state that recognizes common law marriage. When one partner dies unexpectedly without a will, the surviving partner inherits nothing under Michigan law. The deceased partner’s estranged siblings – people who haven’t spoken to them in a decade – have a stronger legal claim to the estate than the person who shared their life.

That’s not a hypothetical. That’s what happens when unmarried Michigan couples don’t plan.

Why You Still Need a Lawyer – Even If You Never Married

Whether you moved to Michigan with a common law marriage from another state or you’ve been living with your partner for years without marrying, the legal issues are real and the stakes are high.

If you have an out-of-state common law marriage, you may need to establish proof of that marriage’s validity – especially if you’re facing divorce, a property dispute, or an inheritance question. If you’re an unmarried couple building a life together, you need a cohabitation agreement, estate planning documents, and a deliberate ownership structure that protects both partners.

Boroja, Bernier & Associates helps families across Southeast Michigan, Central Michigan, and Mid-Michigan navigate exactly these situations – from cohabitation agreements and estate plans for unmarried partners to divorce proceedings involving out-of-state common law marriages. With offices in Shelby Township, Troy, Ann Arbor, and Lansing, our attorneys understand how Michigan law treats these relationships and what it takes to protect yourself when the law doesn’t do it automatically.

The reality is simple: Michigan doesn’t care how committed your relationship is. It cares whether you’re legally married. If you’re not, every protection you want has to be built – deliberately, legally, and correctly.

To schedule a consultation with the Michigan family law and estate planning attorneys at Boroja, Bernier & Associates, call (586) 991-7611 or schedule a consultation online.

Frequently Asked Questions About Common Law Marriages in Michigan

Speak With a Michigan Family Law Attorney

Michigan does not care how committed your relationship is. It cares whether you took the legal steps that create rights. If you are unmarried, those protections have to be built deliberately, before something goes wrong.

At Boroja, Bernier & Associates, we help unmarried and married couples alike protect themselves through cohabitation agreements, estate planning, and clear family law guidance. We serve families in Macomb County, Oakland County, Wayne County, and throughout Southeast Michigan, Central Michigan, and Mid-Michigan.

To protect what you have built together, schedule a consultation with our Michigan family law attorneys or call (586) 991-7611.

About the Author

This article was written by Joel Bernier, Esq., a partner at Boroja, Bernier & Associates PLLC, admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 2010 (Bar No. P74226). Joel focuses his practice on divorce and family law for Michigan families.