Yes, but with two large asterisks. Utah has never had common-law marriage in the traditional sense, where a couple becomes married simply by living together long enough. What Utah has is a statute, now Utah Code 81-2-408, that lets a court declare that a marriage existed even though there was never a license or a ceremony, if the couple meets specific requirements and asks in time. And as of the 2026 legislative session, that statute has an expiration date: no new petitions may be filed on or after May 5, 2027. If you think you might have an unsolemnized marriage, the window to do anything about it is closing.
What Utah actually recognizes
Utah’s statute allows a court to enter an order validating a marriage that was never solemnized. To get that order, the person asking has to prove that the couple:
were of legal age and capable of giving consent;
were legally able to enter a solemnized marriage, meaning neither was married to someone else and they were not too closely related;
lived together;
mutually assumed the rights, duties, and obligations of marriage; and
held themselves out as spouses and acquired a uniform and general reputation as a married couple.
The last two elements are where most cases are decided. Living together for a decade is not enough. The court looks for evidence that the couple actually treated each other as married and that the people around them understood them to be married: joint accounts and joint debts, filing taxes as married, listing each other as spouse on insurance, leases, or medical forms, wearing rings, using the same last name, and introducing each other as husband or wife. A couple who lived together but told friends and family they were “not married” will usually fail.
The one-year deadline
A petition to recognize an unsolemnized marriage must be filed while the relationship is ongoing or within one year after it ends. “Ends” can mean a breakup or a death. This deadline is strict, and it is the reason we tell people in long unmarried relationships to call us quickly when the relationship ends. A partner who waits more than a year has no claim to property division, alimony, or intestate inheritance as a spouse, no matter how long the relationship lasted.
The 2027 sunset
The 2026 Legislature amended Utah Code 81-2-408 to end the process. Under the amended statute, effective May 6, 2026, an individual may not file a petition to validate an unsolemnized marriage on or after May 5, 2027. Petitions filed before that date proceed under the existing rules, and orders that have already been entered are not affected.
The practical result is that anyone who believes they are in, or has recently left, an unsolemnized marriage has until May 4, 2027, to file, and the one-year rule still applies on top of that. If your relationship ended in, say, September 2026, your deadline is the earlier of September 2027 and May 4, 2027, which means May 4, 2027.
What replaces it after that is what already governs unmarried couples: contract law, property titling, and estate documents. Our article on domestic partnerships in Utah explains what unmarried couples do and do not get.
Why it matters
A validated unsolemnized marriage is a real marriage. Property acquired during it is marital and divided equitably. A spouse can receive alimony. A surviving spouse inherits under Utah’s intestacy rules and can claim survivor benefits that depend on marital status. Children’s status is not affected either way, since Utah treats children of married and unmarried parents the same once paternity is established.
For the partner with fewer assets, the order is often the difference between leaving a twenty-year relationship with nothing and leaving with half. For the partner with more assets, it is the reason to understand the elements and, if you do not intend to be married, to avoid holding yourselves out as married.
Marriages from other states
Utah recognizes valid marriages entered in other states, including common-law marriages formed in states that still allow them, as long as the marriage was valid where it was formed. That recognition is not affected by the 2027 sunset, which applies only to Utah’s own validation process.
What to do now
If you are in a long-term relationship where you have acted as spouses and the relationship is ending, or your partner has died, call a family law attorney immediately and ask about a petition under 81-2-408. If you are in such a relationship and it is going well, decide together whether you want to be married, and either get a license or put a cohabitation agreement and estate documents in place so that the sunset does not leave one of you unprotected. If you are the partner with assets and you do not consider yourself married, be consistent about it in how you file taxes, title property, and describe your relationship.
CoilLaw handles unsolemnized marriage petitions, cohabitation agreements, and the property disputes that follow when unmarried relationships end. The deadline on this one is real, so do not wait.
This article is general information about Utah law, not legal advice for your situation.
