Living Together in New Mexico
by: New Mexico Legal Aid
When two people become a couple, are in love, they must decide how they will live. Will they live together, or continue to live apart? Maybe they should break up. Or, should they get married? Let's say they don't get married, but live together for a long time, are they considered to be married? What happens if the girl gets pregnant? If they separate, what happens to the things they owned during the time they lived together?
These days the word family can mean many things. A family can be an unmarried man and woman without children, or with children. It can be a married couple with or without children. It can also be two people living together, who are divorced, with or without children.
People are not getting married as early and as easily as they did in the past. It is the decision of our two people in love to live together. Now they have to make other decisions that have nothing to do with being in love.
Should they separate or mix the money of each person?
How do they share expenses?
Should they own or buy property together?
Who will be responsible for the debt they create?
Should they have children?
If they have children, how will they share the raising of them?
If the couple is married, there are laws that state their rights and responsibilities to each other and to others. Unmarried people living together have very few laws to help and protect them.
Last Reviewed On: 05/13/04
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