June may be one of the most popular months for marriage, but more and more couples are now choosing to co-habit rather than tie the knot.

With the average cost of a wedding now topping £15,000, perhaps it's not surprising that so many young couples are choosing not to walk down the aisle, but there are other important factors to consider when it comes to co-habiting. Halifax offers some timely advice to couples planning their finances:

First of all, don't rely on being a 'common law' husband and wife. Legally, there is no such thing. If just one partner owns the property the couple lives in, there will be no guarantee that the other has any legal rights over it.

So long as everything remains amicable, a joint bank account can seem like a good idea, as partners can set up a regular transfer from their own account to pay household bills out of the joint one.

While this can simplify the process of paying bills, there are some important points to remember.

If one partner overdraws the account, both holders are liable not just the one withdrawing all the funds. Likewise, if one partner leaves and stops paying into the account, but continues to write cheques, both remain liable.

In the event of a couple breaking up, both parties should arrange for the joint account to be closed, including the return of all cheque books and cards, and advise their bank on how standing orders and direct debits should be handled.

Along with bank accounts, credit cards are another way for couples to pool their resources. Additional cardholders can share their partner's credit limit, but it's worth remembering that the principal cardholder will remain liable for all the transactions.

Unlike married people, transfers of capital between unmarried couples when one of them dies are not exempt from inheritance tax. Therefore the surviving partner could be faced with a hefty tax bill to remain in their own home.

Another way of jointly owning a property is as tenants in common, where each partner has an interest in the property expressed as a share in the proceeds of a sale.
But on the death of one co-owner, their share will not automatically go to the surviving partner unless their will states so. If there is no will, their estate will go to their immediate family.

When it comes to mortgages, it makes no difference whether the property is owned as joint tenants or tenants in common. As joint borrowers, each owner has joint and several liability for the mortgage, so, as with joint bank accounts, the lender can look to either or both for repayment of all or part of the mortgage debt.
It may not be the first thing that springs to mind when couples embark on a new life together, but some careful thought about how their finances are managed can save a lot of heartache in future.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 291,800 weddings in the UK in 2002 while this was 2% higher than the previous year's total, there has been a long term decline in the number of marriages. In 2002, 49% of women aged between 18 and 49 were married, compared with 74% in 1979.
By 2016, it's estimated that 11% of English households will be made up of co-habiting partners although married households are still predicted to account for the bulk of the total at 40%, this is well below the 1996 figure of 50%.