200 couples await court wedding ruling

London: Up to 200 couples are awaiting a High Court ruling to discover if their marriages are legal or not, after a council failed to renew the licence for its register office.

The oversight at Langtons House register office in Hornchurch has left couples who married there between October 2004 and last March in a possible legal limbo.

Havering Borough council wrote to the couples after a cleaner found that the licence had expired.

Lawyers acting on behalf of 12 of the couples say that the invalidity of the marriages could cause serious financial and legal complications surrounding matters such as inheritance, tax, mortgage deeds and birth certificates.

A spokesman for Havering council said: "Our advice from the Registrar-General was that the marriages are valid."

However, the Registrar-General believes that only a court could officially make a ruling over the validity of the marriages. The council has agreed to a test case in the High Court.