Cohabitation

In this situation it is advisable for you ,as a widower, to have an agreement drawn up between you and your  girlfriend which settles your mutual financial obligations and rights regarding existing property and that which you may acquire while living together in the future. Thus, what is currently owed by you  can be protected. Additionally, it is advisable for you to make a will, so that you can make provision to leave what you own to your  children, or to make provision for both them and your girlfriend, as you wish.

Making an agreement and a will is likely to prevent problems later on should your  girlfriend become a common-law wife and the relationship end by you splitting up as a couple, or by you dying.

No, as regards the Inheritance Law of 1965 there is no difference between the rights of children whose parents are married and those of children whose parents are not married.

Minor children whose parents are not married have the right to be supported according to the personal law relating to their particular religion of their parents. When one of the parents does not have a personal law – as is the case with your cohabitee  – then civil law applies, the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959. Under this legislation the burden of financial support for a child falls on both parents, not solely on the father, according to their relative incomes, from birth until the age of 18 . If the mother does not work but the father does, then the maintenance burden will fall on him but if the mother works her salary will be taken into account.

If both parents are Jewish even though they are not married the financial burden of supporting their minor children falls solely on the father until they reach the age of 15. From the ages of 15-18 it is shared between both parents, depending on their relative incomes. This obligation derives from the obligation under Jewish law which is incorporated into civil legislation , The Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959.

No ! Where a Jewish couple have the legal capacity to marry according to Jewish law , but choose not to, their children are legitimate Jews and have the same status of children of Jews married in a traditional religious ceremony. What distinguishes children born to unmarried Jewish parents from bastards or “mamzerim” ,in Hebrew, is the legal capacity of their parents to marry. The parents of “mamzerim” lack the legal capacity to marry under Jewish law which forbids their union. “Mamzerim” have inferior status under Jewish law and can only marry other “Mamzerim”.