Predatory marriage: Legal moves are under way to combat this terrible abuse
Sarah Coles is head of personal finance at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.
We’d never heard of predatory marriages until three years ago, when we realised my dad was at risk.
Now it is becoming more widely understood, and last week it emerged that the law may change to protect vulnerable people from falling victim.
My dad was at risk, because he was suffering from vascular dementia after a massive stroke.
While he remained the caring, generous and funny man he had always been, his brain function was declining to the point where he struggled to understand what was going on around him.
His long-term girlfriend left when he got ill, so he was supported by several carers every day. He appreciated the help, but what he really wanted was a wife to look after him, so he started proposing to his carers – sometimes almost immediately after meeting them.
Fortunately, they were honourable and kind people, who let him down gently and warned us it was happening. They were concerned he could be taken advantage of, so we looked into it.
We contacted the local Registrar, who confirmed that although dad had lost mental capacity, he could still get married. The rules are set up with a lower bar, so that those born with reduced mental capacity aren’t denied the opportunity to marry.
We knew that wills are automatically voided when you marry, and we realised that because he didn’t have mental capacity, he couldn’t make a new one.
It would have meant he died intestate (without a will), so his wife would have received all his personal property, the first £322,000 of the estate and half of the rest. That’s when we found out about predatory marriages, where someone tricks a vulnerable person into marriage, in order to exploit this loophole.
Daphne Franks, whose mother was the victim of a predatory marriage, has been instrumental in bringing the issue to light.
Sarah Coles: We contacted the local Registrar, who confirmed that although dad had lost mental capacity, he could still get married
Her mother, 91-year-old Joan Blass, had also suffered advanced vascular dementia, and it was only after her death that the family discovered that, without their knowledge, she’d married a man 20 years her junior.
He’d moved into her home when she was ill. She’d not shown any sign of knowing they were married, and didn’t realise he had moved in. She thought he might be her carer.
He inherited her estate and the right to decide her funeral arrangements, so she’s now buried in an unmarked grave.
Daphne and her husband challenged this in court, but in the absence of any proof she didn’t have the mental capacity to get married, they lost.
Daphne set up Predatory Marriage UK to draw attention to the issue, and took her case to Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North East.
In 2018 be brought a Private Members Bill calling for, among other things, notice of weddings to be published online. It was passed, but ran out of parliamentary time. However, it encouraged more families to tell their stories, and as a result of this publicity and pressure, the Law Commission got involved.
On 5 October it launched a consultation into changing the law which decrees that when you get married or enter a civil partnership, any existing wills are revoked. It had actually consulted on it previously, but in the wake of growing awareness of predatory marriage, it’s reconsidering its recommendations.
The first time round it had suggested keeping the general rule and establishing an exception if at the time of the marriage the person getting married lacked ‘testamentary capacity’.
However, it realised this wouldn’t work, because the person assessing their capacity would be a registrar or a member of the clergy, who wouldn’t be in a position to safely assess this.
Now it’s considering revoking the rule entirely, so a will still stands if someone marries or forms a civil partnership. It will have to be satisfied that it offers protection for second families, but it could close the loophole, and protect vulnerable people from predatory marriages.
Ministers and peers are involved in consulting on what should be under consideration, but so are judges, lawyers, academics, private sector organisations and charities.
Last summer the Law Commission also concluded a separate consultation on marriages, which was specifically requested by the Government in the 2018 Budget.
It ended up recommending measures to make it harder for someone to marry someone with reduced mental capacity in secret.
It outlined protections that should be put in place ahead of any wedding, including meeting with both people who want to marry separately, publishing notices of marriages online, and allowing for a caveat to be placed before any notice of marriage is given so that, for example, someone with power of attorney who believes that the person doesn’t have the capacity to marry can warn the Registrar in advance.
The Law Commission is a statutory body, but it is independent. In the past around two thirds of recommendations have been implemented, not counting the ones that are waiting for a decision or for parliamentary time.
So, we don’t know yet whether this Government or a future one will take up the measures to combat predatory marriage outlined above, but they would be a step in the right direction.
My dad died in February this year – still unmarried – and the funeral was a sea of the blue uniforms worn by his carers.
Their support and fond memories of dad was a lovely reminder that while there are some terrible people out there who prey on the vulnerable, there are others who make it their life’s work to support and care for them.
