Couples clinging on to debt-struck relationships after losing love |
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Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:05
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A world without love has always been known as a dead world, but here the case is different with a world without love being primarily a ‘debt world’. Certain couples in the country are living together and sustaining an absolutely loveless relationship purely because of the pressure of joint mortgages and loans on their heads.
A new study by the Skipton Building Society startlingly revealed a proportion of one in every 20 couples living together with their partners not because they loved each other but because of joint financial obligations that had forced them to stick on to their relationship. These couples are labelled the “Money Over Love Couples”.
The survey showed that lofty housing prices along with increasing personal debt levels had glued people together in spite of their various personal differences. The Skipton Building Society study saw 9% of people candidly accepting they would separate from their partners as soon as finance was extricated from their relationship. Similarly, greater than one in every ten couples knew of people who had maintained a relationship only on account of financial demands.
Skipton Building Society’s Jennifer Holloway commented, “There's no doubting two incomes are better than one and by sharing the cost of living, couples can have a nicer lifestyle - but at what cost to their relationship? While we're seeing a growing trend for choosing the high life over their love life, for those who decide to make the break it's important they get their finances in order to make the most of what money they have.”
Holloway added that it would be better for couples to start living together after approving of a ‘living together agreement’ like what advicenow.org.uk has introduced that clarifies the financial status of the couples before plunging into a serious relationship.
About three-fourths of the couples surveyed said that the number of loveless and ‘full of debt’ relationships had increased since the previous five years, while at least three out of four couples attributed this tendency to the huge equity amounts of people in their properties which made it extremely cumbersome for one partner to takeover the other. Another 64% held hefty house prices responsible whereas 41 % felt that the ever-mounting debt levels were the main culprits in these forced relationships.
A co-habitation expert from Advicenow, Mary Weber, said that as many as 75,000 couples had subscribed to a contract in their online guide meant to assist them in case of a relationship failure. Endorsing the fact that women were the most affected with a break up, she explained, “Women seem to suffer the worst in such situations, moving out first, leaving behind their possessions and receiving a fraction of what they own. When couples move in together they are often very much in love and can't imagine things going wrong, but it is vital they know their rights when it comes to their housing.”
She further said that it was not feasible always for one partner “to buy out the other or agree to a joint sale. In the worst-case scenarios, the courts have to get involved, which prolongs matters at a time when, if there is bitterness, a couple will just want to walk away as quickly as possible. The agreement we offer is like a pre- nuptial arrangement but without the nuptials. It can go beyond property to include such possessions as a car.”
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