Texas Common-Law Marriage: How Informal Marriage Is Proven
What Texas Family Code Section 2.401 requires to prove an informal marriage, how a declaration works, what the two-year rebuttable presumption means, and the 2025 privacy update for declarations.
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Key Takeaways
- • Texas recognizes informal marriage, often called common-law marriage, under Family Code Section 2.401.
- • Without a filed declaration, proof generally requires evidence that the parties agreed to be married, then lived together in Texas as spouses, and represented to others that they were married.
- • If a proceeding to prove the marriage is not started before the second anniversary of separation and the end of cohabitation, the statute creates a rebuttable presumption that the parties did not agree to be married.
- • Effective September 1, 2025, HB 1193 added a confidentiality option for identifying information on a declaration of informal marriage.
Texas does not turn a couple into spouses merely because they lived together for a certain number of months or years. The statute uses specific proof requirements for an informal marriage.
Couples may also execute a statutory declaration of informal marriage with the county clerk. That declaration can simplify proof, but it is not the only route recognized by Section 2.401.
There is no automatic time-based common-law marriage
Section 2.401 focuses on agreement, cohabitation in Texas after the agreement, and representation to others as married. The statute does not create marriage simply because two people lived together for six months, seven years, or another fixed period.
A declaration is one statutory proof method
The parties may sign a declaration of informal marriage under Section 2.402. Once properly executed and recorded, the declaration or certificate is prima facie evidence of the marriage under Section 2.404.
The two-year rule is a rebuttable presumption, not an automatic divorce
Section 2.401(b) provides that if a proceeding to prove the marriage is not commenced before the second anniversary of the date the parties separated and ceased living together, it is rebuttably presumed that they did not enter an agreement to be married. That is an evidentiary presumption, not a rule that an existing marriage automatically expires after two years.
HB 1193 added declaration privacy protections in 2025
Effective September 1, 2025, HB 1193 amended Section 2.402 and added Section 2.406 so a party may request confidentiality for identifying information on the declaration. The parties' names remain public under the statutory rule, while other identifying information receives the specified protection.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do you have to live together to be common-law married in Texas?
Texas law does not set a minimum cohabitation period. The proof elements in Section 2.401 matter instead.
Do we have to file a declaration to have an informal marriage?
No. A declaration is one proof method. Section 2.401 also allows proof through evidence of agreement, cohabitation in Texas, and representing to others that the parties were married.
Does separating for two years automatically end an informal marriage?
No. Section 2.401(b) creates a rebuttable presumption about whether an agreement to marry existed if a proceeding is not timely started; it does not create an automatic divorce.