Introduction

The Act includes many small, but significant, legislative changes, designed to ensure that civil partners enjoy broadly the same rights as married persons. The areas covered are wide ranging – from wills and intestacy, pensions and tax credits to insurance policies, via secure tenancies and fatal accident compensation. A new solution to a long-standing problem for those partners who are home sharers is contained in section 65, which provides that if a civil partner contributes to the improvement of property in which one or both partners are beneficially interested, the contributing partner will acquire a share, or an enhanced share, in the property. The section reflects the legal position which already applies to married and engaged couples by virtue of section 37 of the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970.

Amendments to tax legislation so that civil partners are taxed in the same way as spouses (of particular importance in the case of inheritance tax, where same-sex partners have not hitherto benefited from the spouse exemption on assets which exceed the nil rate band) are not specifically included in the Civil Partnership Act but will form part of the next Finance Bill.

Property: contributions to improvement

The state of the law as it affects unmarried cohabitants who carry out improvements to property has been unsatisfactory for many years.