Common law marriage in Virginia does not exist as a way to become married. No matter how many years you live together, share finances, or introduce each other as spouses, Virginia will not treat your relationship as a legal marriage unless you obtained a marriage license and had a ceremony performed by an authorized officiant.1Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-13 – License and Solemnization Required The statute is blunt: “Every marriage in this Commonwealth shall be under a license and solemnized.” There is no exception for long cohabitation, combined households, or couples who hold themselves out as married.
That single rule shapes everything else. Property, inheritance, medical authority, taxes, federal benefits, and even parental rights all turn on whether the state considers you legally married. If it doesn’t, none of the default protections apply, and you have to build them yourself.
The One Exception: Common Law Marriages From Other States
Virginia will not let you form a common law marriage inside its borders, but it will generally recognize one that was validly formed somewhere that does allow them. If you and your partner met the requirements for common law marriage in a state that permits it, and then moved to Virginia, the state will treat you as legally married with the full rights and obligations that come with that status.2LII / Legal Information Institute. Common Law Marriage
Only a handful of states still allow new common law marriages to form: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and the District of Columbia. A few others recognize common law marriages only if they were established before a specific cutoff date.3National Conference of State Legislatures. Common Law Marriage by State Each of those states sets its own requirements, but they typically involve both partners agreeing to be married, living together, and presenting themselves publicly as a married couple. Simply cohabiting for a long time in one of those states is usually not enough.
If you believe you established a valid common law marriage elsewhere and now live in Virginia, documentation matters. Joint tax returns, shared bank accounts, insurance beneficiary designations, and signed statements from people who knew you as a married couple can all help prove the marriage if it is ever questioned.
Property and Inheritance When You Aren’t Married
This is where the gap hits hardest. When a married couple in Virginia separates, a court has the authority to divide marital property equitably. When an unmarried couple splits up, that authority does not exist. Each person keeps whatever is titled in their own name. If only your partner’s name is on the deed to the house or the title to the car, you have no automatic claim, even after years of contributing.
Inheritance is even starker. Virginia’s intestacy rules, which control what happens when someone dies without a will, distribute assets to a surviving spouse, children, parents, siblings, and more distant relatives in a set order.4Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 64.2-200 – Course of Descents Generally An unmarried partner is not on that list. If your partner dies without a will, you inherit nothing, no matter how long you were together.
Married spouses also have a backstop called the elective share. Even if a will leaves the surviving spouse out entirely, that spouse can claim 50 percent of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate.5Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 64.2-308.3 – Effect of Election on Statutory Benefits Unmarried partners have no elective share right. A partner could be removed from a will at any time, and the surviving partner would have no remedy.
The practical response: if you want your partner to inherit anything, you need a will, a trust, or both. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship on real property, transfer-on-death designations for financial accounts, and beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance let you route assets to your partner outside probate. For unmarried couples, none of this happens without action.
Medical and Financial Decisions in an Emergency
Virginia law gives a legal spouse default authority to make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner. Unmarried partners get no such default. In an emergency, a hospital may turn to parents or adult children rather than the person who shares your life.
The fix is available but requires acting before you need it. Virginia’s advance directive statute lets any competent adult name any other person as their healthcare agent, signed in front of two witnesses.6Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2983 – Procedure for Making Advance Directive There is no requirement that the agent be a spouse or relative, so naming your unmarried partner is fine.
Pair that with a durable financial power of attorney. Without one, your partner cannot access your bank accounts, pay your bills, or deal with insurers if you become incapacitated, no matter how long you’ve shared expenses. These documents cost little and prevent a great deal of chaos.
Parental Rights for Unmarried Parents
When married parents have a child in Virginia, both are automatically recognized as legal parents. For unmarried parents, the picture is different. The mother’s legal relationship is established by giving birth. A father has to take an additional step.
Virginia offers two paths to establish paternity. The first is a voluntary written acknowledgment signed under oath by both parents after receiving a written and oral explanation of the rights and consequences. Either parent can rescind that acknowledgment within 60 days. The second is a court case, which can include genetic testing. Test results showing at least a 98 percent probability of paternity carry the same weight as a court judgment.7Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-49.1 – How Parent and Child Relationship Established You can start a paternity case through the Division of Child Support Enforcement or by filing a petition in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.8Virginia Department of Social Services. Establish Paternity in Virginia
Once paternity is legally established, custody and visitation are decided under the same best-interests standard that applies to married parents.9Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-124.3 – Best Interests of the Child; Visitation Until paternity is established, though, a father has no standing to ask a court for custody or visitation at all.
Taxes and Federal Benefits
Because Virginia does not treat cohabiting partners as married, you file separate federal and state returns. You cannot file jointly, which often produces a higher combined tax bill than a married couple with the same total income would owe.
Transfers between partners create gift tax exposure that married couples never face. Spouses can transfer unlimited amounts to each other tax-free under the marital deduction. Unmarried partners get no marital deduction, so significant transfers count as taxable gifts once they exceed the annual exclusion, which is $19,000 per recipient for 2026.10Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Amounts above that eat into your lifetime estate and gift tax exemption. Estate taxes work the same way: assets passing to a legal spouse are exempt regardless of size, while assets passing to an unmarried partner are not.
Social Security survivor benefits, spousal benefits, and Medicare eligibility based on a partner’s work record are only available to legal spouses. If your partner worked for decades and you did not, you have no claim on those benefits through their record unless the state considers you married.
The exception, again, is a valid out-of-state common law marriage. The Social Security Administration will evaluate such a claim using signed statements from both spouses and blood relatives, along with supporting documents like mortgage receipts, bank records, and insurance policies naming both partners.11Social Security Administration. 1717 – Evidence of Common-Law Marriage Federal employee health benefits follow the same pattern: a common law spouse can qualify if the marriage was formed in a state that recognizes them, and the marriage remains valid for those benefits even after moving to Virginia. Proof requires either a court order from the recognizing state or a signed declaration supported by documents such as a joint tax return or evidence of shared residence and combined finances.12Office of Personnel Management. Family Member Eligibility Fact Sheet – Common Law Spouse
Documents That Fill the Gaps
Virginia will not hand unmarried partners the automatic protections of marriage, but it does let you build many of them through contracts and estate planning. Nothing happens by default, so every protection has to be deliberately created.
A cohabitation agreement is a written contract between partners covering property ownership, shared expenses, and how assets get divided if you separate. You can spell out who owns what, how jointly purchased items are split, and how household costs are allocated. This matters most for real property, because the person named on the deed is presumed to be the sole owner.
Beyond a cohabitation agreement, unmarried partners in Virginia should consider assembling the documents that give married couples their default rights:
- A will or trust, without which your partner inherits nothing from you
- An advance medical directive naming your partner as your healthcare agent6Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2983 – Procedure for Making Advance Directive
- A durable financial power of attorney so your partner can manage money and legal affairs if you’re incapacitated
- Updated beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement accounts, and bank accounts
- Joint tenancy with right of survivorship on co-owned property, so it passes directly to the surviving partner outside probate
These documents cover most of the daily-life and emergency gaps. Some rights cannot be replicated by contract at all, including Social Security survivor benefits and the unlimited marital deduction for gift and estate taxes. For couples who cannot marry or choose not to, the combination above still handles what matters most when something goes wrong.