Is Common Law Marriage Valid in Florida? Fla. Stat. § 741.211, Explained

By Nadia Pazos, Family Law Attorney, Pazos Law Group · Updated August 11, 2026

Florida abolished common law marriage more than half a century ago. Fla. Stat. § 741.211 is one sentence long, and it answers the question completely for any relationship formed in this state after 1 January 1968. What it does not do is erase older Florida common law marriages, or refuse recognition to a common law marriage lawfully created somewhere else.

What Does § 741.211 Actually Say?

Section 741.211 sits in chapter 741, “Marriage; domestic violence,” and is titled “Common-law marriages void.” Here is the entire operative text:

“No common-law marriage entered into after January 1, 1968, shall be valid, except that nothing contained in this section shall affect any marriage which, though otherwise defective, was entered into by the party asserting such marriage in good faith and in substantial compliance with this chapter.”

Two things follow from that sentence. First, the cut-off is a date of formation, not a date of discovery, separation or death. Second, the exception at the end is not a back door to common law marriage: it protects someone who attempted a real, ceremonial marriage in good faith and in substantial compliance with chapter 741 — the licensing and solemnisation provisions — but whose marriage turned out to be technically defective. It does not protect a couple who never attempted to comply with chapter 741 at all.

How Long Do You Have to Live Together in Florida to Be Common Law Married?

There is no such period. Not seven years, not ten, not any number. Section 741.211 contains no time element, and no other Florida statute converts cohabitation into marriage by the passage of time. The seven-year rule people repeat is folklore.

This matters more than it sounds. Because the relationship is not a marriage, none of chapter 61 is triggered by a break-up. Fla. Stat. § 61.021 requires that one party reside 6 months in the state before filing for a dissolution of marriage, and Fla. Stat. § 61.052 sets out when a judgment of dissolution may be granted — both of which presuppose a marriage that exists in the first place.

Does “Holding Yourselves Out as Married” Change Anything After 1968?

For a Florida relationship, no. Joint tax returns, a shared surname, a jointly titled home, calling each other husband and wife in front of family, wearing rings, listing one another as a spouse on insurance forms — under the old common law those facts were evidence of the mutual present agreement that created the marriage. After 1 January 1968 there is no such marriage in Florida to prove, so the evidence has nothing to attach to.

Those same facts can still matter, but only in a different question: whether a common law marriage was formed under the law of a state that still allows one. That is addressed below.

Are Pre-1968 Florida Common Law Marriages Still Valid?

Yes. Section 741.211 is prospective. It voids a common law marriage “entered into after January 1, 1968”; a Florida common law marriage validly formed before that date was not disturbed by the statute and remains a marriage. Those cases are now rare and usually surface in probate or in a claim for survivor benefits rather than in a divorce, but they exist, and they must be proved as marriages under the law that applied when they were formed.

Will Florida Recognise a Common Law Marriage from Another State?

Yes, if the marriage was validly created where it was entered into. This is the place-of-celebration rule, applied as a matter of comity. In Smith v. Anderson, 821 So. 2d 323 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002), the Second District put the two halves of Florida law side by side:

“Florida does not recognize the validity of common-law marriages contracted in Florida after 1968. . . . However, Florida does recognize common-law marriages that are entered into in states that do accept common-law marriages. . . . ‘[T]he validity of a marriage is to be determined by the law of the jurisdiction where the marriage was entered into.’”

The court was citing Anderson v. Anderson, 577 So. 2d 658 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991), which in turn cited Johnson v. Lincoln Square Properties, Inc., 571 So. 2d 541 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). So the practical question in a Florida courtroom is never “are we common law married in Florida?” It is: did the other state’s law create a marriage, on the facts, while you were there?

How Is an Out-of-State Common Law Marriage Proved in a Florida Court?

By proving the elements of the other state’s law, with evidence. Smith v. Anderson is a cautionary example. The couple went through a ceremony in Georgia while the husband’s prior divorce was not yet final, then lived their entire lives in Florida, visiting Georgia less than twice a year. The Second District affirmed the finding that no Georgia common law marriage was ever created, declining to follow New York authority that would have allowed family visits to satisfy Georgia’s cohabitation requirement. Contrast Anderson, where, as the Second District noted, the uncontroverted evidence established that the parties had lived, cohabited and held themselves out as husband and wife in Georgia.

If your claim depends on a common law marriage formed elsewhere, the evidence that matters is where you actually lived together and what the law of that state required at the time — not how long the relationship lasted afterwards in Florida.

If We Were Never Married, Can a Florida Court Divide Our Property?

Not under the equitable distribution statute. Fla. Stat. § 61.075 governs the distribution of marital assets and liabilities in a dissolution proceeding, beginning from the premise in § 61.075(1) that the distribution should be equal unless there is a justification for an unequal one. Section 61.075(6)(b) defines nonmarital assets and liabilities, and § 61.075(6)(a)1.b. treats as marital the enhancement in value and appreciation of a nonmarital asset resulting from the efforts of either party during the marriage. Every one of those provisions is keyed to a marriage.

With no marriage there is no marital estate, no equitable distribution, and no order under § 61.075 to be entered. Nor is there any fee-shifting under Fla. Stat. § 61.16, which applies to proceedings under chapter 61.

What Happens to Jointly Titled Property?

Title controls. A house deeded to both of you, a joint bank account, a car titled in both names — those are resolved by the ordinary law of co-ownership, generally through a partition action in the civil division, not by a family court dividing a marital estate. A house titled in one partner’s name alone does not become half yours because you contributed to the mortgage or renovated the kitchen; whatever remedy exists is a civil claim that must be pleaded and proved, not the automatic classification that § 61.075 supplies to spouses.

The lesson is unglamorous and consistent: for unmarried couples in Florida, paperwork is the whole ballgame. Deeds, account titling, written agreements and beneficiary designations do the work that marriage would otherwise do.

Can an Unmarried Partner Get Alimony in Florida?

No. Fla. Stat. § 61.08 authorises the court to grant alimony in a proceeding for dissolution of marriage, and its factors — including the duration of the marriage — only make sense between spouses. Florida has no palimony statute. A twenty-year cohabitation that ends produces no support obligation under § 61.08, however unequal the parties’ earnings were.

Do Children Change the Answer?

Completely, and in the other direction. Nothing about the parents’ marital status limits a child’s rights.

• Parentage. Fla. Stat. § 742.011 provides that a pregnant woman or a woman with a child, a man who has reason to believe he is the father, or the child may bring proceedings in circuit court to determine paternity when it has not been established by law or otherwise, and that after the birth a parent may request a determination of parental responsibility and child support and the creation of a parenting plan and time-sharing schedule pursuant to chapter 61.
• How paternity gets established. Fla. Stat. § 742.10 identifies the routes — adjudication, a stipulation of paternity, or a properly executed voluntary acknowledgment of paternity — and provides that after the 60-day rescission period a signed voluntary acknowledgment constitutes an establishment of paternity that may be challenged only on the basis of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact.
• Support. Child support is calculated under the guidelines in Fla. Stat. § 61.30, which apply to all support determinations, not only those in a divorce.
• Time-sharing. A parenting plan and time-sharing schedule are decided under Fla. Stat. § 61.13.

Two unmarried parents therefore have exactly the same obligations to their child as two married ones. What they lack is anything owed to each other.

What If One Partner Dies Without a Will?

An unmarried partner is not a surviving spouse and takes nothing by intestacy. Fla. Stat. § 732.102, “Spouse’s share of intestate estate,” allocates the intestate estate as follows:

“The intestate share of the surviving spouse is: (1) If there is no surviving descendant of the decedent, the entire intestate estate. (2) If the decedent is survived by one or more descendants, all of whom are also descendants of the surviving spouse, and the surviving spouse has no other descendant, the entire intestate estate.”

Every one of those subsections begins with a surviving spouse. A long-term partner who was never married to the decedent is outside the statute entirely and must rely on a will, a trust, a beneficiary designation, or survivorship titling. This is where the “we were basically married” assumption does the most damage, because by the time it is tested the person who could have fixed it is gone.

Can an Unmarried Couple Use a Prenuptial Agreement Instead?

Only if a wedding is actually planned. Fla. Stat. § 61.079(2)(a) defines a premarital agreement as an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and to be effective upon marriage, and § 61.079(5) provides that such an agreement becomes effective upon marriage. A couple with no marriage in view cannot bring themselves inside § 61.079.

What they can do is sign an ordinary written agreement — a cohabitation or property agreement — addressing who owns what, how a jointly purchased home is divided, and what happens to contributions toward the other person’s asset. That document is governed by contract law rather than by chapter 61, and it is the closest an unmarried Florida couple gets to the certainty a prenup provides.

How Do You Actually Get Married in Florida Now?

By obtaining a licence and having the marriage solemnised. Fla. Stat. § 741.04 sets out what a county court judge or clerk of the circuit court must have before issuing a marriage licence, including the signed affidavit described in § 741.04(2) and, under § 741.04(4), a written statement signed by both parties specifying whether they have completed a premarital preparation course together with a statement verifying that both have obtained and read the handbook on the rights and responsibilities of parties to a marriage. Section 741.04(5) delays the effective date of the licence by 3 days from the date of application where no valid certificates of completion of a premarital preparation course are submitted, subject to the exceptions the subsection lists.

That is the only route. There is no filing, registration or waiting period that converts a Florida cohabitation into a marriage.

What Should an Unmarried Florida Couple Actually Do?

1. Decide deliberately whether to marry. Do not let a date on a lease stand in for a decision.
2. Title property to reflect the true intention, and record it. Deeds outlive memories.
3. Put contributions in writing — who paid the deposit, who is paying the mortgage, what happens on a sale.
4. Sign a written cohabitation or property agreement if there is a home, a business, or a large disparity in assets.
5. Execute a will, and check every beneficiary designation. Section 732.102 will not help you.
6. If there are children, establish parentage under chapter 742 and get a written parenting plan under § 61.13 and a support determination under § 61.30.
7. If you believe a common law marriage was created in another state, gather the evidence of where you lived and how you presented yourselves there before it becomes unavailable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources & Related Reading

• Fla. Stat. § 741.211, Common-law marriages void — official text (Online Sunshine)
• Fla. Stat. § 741.04, Issuance of marriage license — official text
• Fla. Stat. § 732.102, Spouse’s share of intestate estate — official text
• Fla. Stat. § 742.011, Proceedings for determination of paternity — official text
• Florida Family Law Forms — flcourts.gov
• Florida Paternity Attorney (Chapter 742)
• Florida Child Support Attorney (§ 61.30)
• Fla. Stat. § 61.075 — Equitable Distribution in Florida
• Florida Prenuptial Agreement Attorney (§ 61.079)
• Florida Annulment Attorney
• Legal Separation in Florida
• Restoring a Former Name After a Florida Divorce (§ 68.07)
• Florida Family Law Glossary

The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading or sharing this content does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pazos Law Group. Florida law and the application of statutes change over time; please consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific situation.