Can you get ‘common-law’ married in Pennsylvania

PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) — Is marrying someone without purchasing a marriage license or having a ceremony in Pennsylvania legal?

A “common-law” or “non-ceremonial” marriage is a type of marriage that drops the requirement of a license and instead, adopts a different set of rules. For example, to qualify for a common-law marriage, a couple must meet a specific set of requirements , which can be found below.

• Living together: You may have heard that cohabitation with someone for ten years or more makes you common-law married. There is no statutory requirement for the length of time a couple needs to live together. The court considers the amount of time a couple lives together on a case-to-case basis
• Legal right or “capacity” to marry: Both partners must have the legal capacity to marry. Usually, this means they must both be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. They also can’t already be married to other people
• Intent: Both partners must intend to be married
• Behaving as a married couple: Both partners must hold themselves out to friends, family, and the public as being a married couple

While these are a blanket set of rules that look to outline what common-law is, what about Pennsylvania?

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Pennsylvania, along with five other states, enacted legislation that eliminated the right to enter into a common-law marriage, but also still recognized marriages formed before a specified date. For the Commonwealth, if you were common-law married on or before Jan. 1, 2005 , your marriage is still valid and recognized.

There are only eight states that still recognize common-law marriages in 2024 – Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. It is important to note that each state does have specific circumstances outside of the previously listed ones.

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