Cohabitation – Inheritance

Question:

I have been living with someone who is fairly well off for many years but we are not married. He is very ill and I am worried about how I will survive when he dies. Am I entitled to any monthly sum ?

Answer:

The Inheritance Law of 1965 provides for maintenance from a deceased’s estate for both women who were married and for unmarried women (cohabitees). For a cohabitee to be entitled to maintenance from the estate under the act she must have been living together with the deceased when he died and neither of them should have been married to anyone else.

Question:

The man I lived with has died suddenly. We were not married but lived together for many years. Am I entitled to any benefits from the National Insurance following his death ? He worked up until his death and always paid up his national insurance dues.

Answer:

Yes. The National Insurance Act includes a cohabitee or common-law wife under the definition of wife. The definition reads: “ wife – including common-law wife who lives with him.” Thus if the man you lived with kept up his National Insurance payments then you would be entitled to any widow’s benefit due, providing you met with any requirements of the act. Your status as a common-law wife will need to be proved.

Question:

Does a common-law partner or unmarried partner have inheritance rights under Israeli law  ?

Yes, the Inheritance Act of 1965 gives common-law partners or cohabitees who meet certain preconditions equal rights to those of married spouses. If the common-law partners or cohabitees  were living together in a joint household, at the time the deceased died, and neither of them was married to someone else when one of them dies, then the one who survives is to receive the share he/she would have received if they had been married to one another.

Question:

Does the surviving partner in a common-law relationship  have to get legal recognition of his/her status before being able to inherit part of the deceased partner's estate ?

Answer:

Yes ! Even if it is plain to everybody, the surviving cohabitee will still have to prove his/her status, according to the criteria set in the Inheritance Law of 1965. In other words, he/she must prove that they ran a common household, without being married to one another, and without either of them being married to anyone else. Married spouses, in contrast, do not need to get a court declaration of their status in order to inherit – proof of marriage itself  is sufficient.

Question:

Does Israeli inheritance law discriminate against single-sex couples or can they inherit just like heterosexual couples who cohabit but are not married ?

Answer:

Until recently, despite a slow trend recognizing the legal rights of single sexed couples , they were discriminated against regarding Inheritance. Courts interpreted the 1965 Inheritance Law regarding the rights of non-married cohabiting couples very strictly; they only applied to a couple comprising a man and a woman. Surviving partners in a Homosexual or Lesbian relationship had no inheritance rights under the act. However,a revolutionary judgment made by Nazareth District Court in November 2004 may mark the beginning of the gradual recognition of the rights of cohabitees in single-sexed relationships to inherit.

In a 2:1 majority ruling the Nazareth Court accepted an appeal by the surviving homosexual partner of the deceased, with whom he had had a relationship spanning over 30 years, regarding his right to inherit under the act. The family court decision in 2003 had rejected his right to inherit as a common law spouse in a Homosexual relationship. Overturning this, the appeal court accepted the legal point that a single-sex surviving partner could qualify as a common-law spouse under the Inheritance Act.

While the language of the act referred to "a man and a woman" the appeal court held that this expression was a "key" and not a "lock". Hebrew grammar had no neuter, only male and female, and therefore the wording of the act could not be neutral.

".. We are interpreting the definition of existing status; we are examining who can enter its gate," the court said, stressing that it did not aim to create a new status, just to interpret the law . However, the court said, "if that interpretation is within the realms of a revolution then I have made a revolution."

In any case, it is recommended that those  wishing to be certain either way regarding their  surviving single-sex partners' rights to inherit, should they die, are advised to draft a will expressing their wishes regarding the fate of their property after their demise. If valid, a will takes precedent over their rights under law anyway.

Question:

I have been living with a man for many years now. His  wife refuses to divorce him .They have grown up children . He has  not made a will. Would I be entitled to inherit if he dies ?

Answer:

As long as a man who has left home to cohabit with another woman remains legally married to his wife , and has not made a will, she, and not the woman he lives with, will inherit his property, according to the terms of the 1965 Inheritance Law . His children will also be his heirs, again according to the terms of the 1965 Inheritance Law. This legislation contains a condition concerning the eligibility of a cohabitee to have rights to a deceased cohabitee's estate as a common-law spouse -neither of them can be married to anyone else at the time the deceased passes away. In your  case, your "man" is married which would prevent you, as his cohabite,  from inheriting as his common-law wife,  if he died.

Question:

How strict are the National Insurance requirements about non-married couples having to live together for one to qualify as a surviving spouse after the other’s death ?

Answer:

While generally the National Insurance Institute requires that the surviving party should actually live with the deceased to qualify for surviving spouse benefits, in exceptional circumstances he/she may be entitled to financial support, even without this, if it can be proved by other means that he/she was regarded as the common-law spouse.

In one case, the National Labour Court accepted an appeal by a woman against a decision by Jerusalem District Labour Court that had rejected her plea for a declaratory jugdment stating that she was the common-law wife of the deceased. It held she was  entitled to benefits as a common-law wife of the deceased, despite .

The original reason for the refusal was that they lived in separately.  However, the appeal court held that the couple were elderly, and lived as a couple within the reality of their circumstances. It pointed out that the appellant visited and helped the deceased in the old people’s home where he lived, and her name appeared at the head of the list of mourners in the death announcement published in the newspaper, as if she were his widow.

Question:

I have been living with a man for many years as if we were man and wife although we did not actually get married. He has a terminal illness. He has no children, only a brother and sister . If he passes away who will be entitled to his life insurance policy ?

Answer:

Basically, the person/s named on the policy will be entitled to it, if there are person/s named. If nothing specific is stated, then the policy holder’s heirs will be entitled to it, according to the terms of the Inheritance Law of 1965. Thus if the deceased’s ‘cohabitee’ proves her status, then she will be entitled to 2/3 and the brother and sister the remaining 1/3 between them.