Marriages which are not valid.
Certain
marriages are treated as if they never took
place. These are called void marriages. They
are marriages which do not meet the
requirements of United Kingdom law. An
example of a void marriage is one where the
partners may not marry because they are
related. People needing to know whether a
marriage is void will need to seek
specialist legal advice.
Some marriages may have met the
requirements of United Kingdom law when they
took place but may then be annulled. These
are called voidable marriages. An example of
where a marriage is voidable is where one of
the partners did not give valid consent to
the marriage because the consent was given
under duress. Either partner can seek to
annul the marriage but if neither partner
does, the marriage will be valid. If you
need to know more about voidable marriages,
you will need to seek specialist advice.