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What they say doesn't matter. The laws of the state matter, and also if the debt collector is going to go to court to argue for the case to get the debt. They'd have to make a case that proved cohabitation such as to trigger common law marriage, or collective ownership of the assets.
It also relates to divorce. If you live with someone for 10+ years, but never marry, but say file taxes together, in some states one party could sue the other for alimony payments.
It's not many. There is like 9 states with communal property, and 8 with common law marriage and they are all difference in how their interpret things. TX is one large state that is in both groups.
It should be noted that common law marriage is EXTREMELY rare. If you call them your boyfriend/girlfriend instead of your spouse, you're (at least in states I've looked into) not ever going to be common law married. If you never hold some kind of ceremony, you aren't common law married. It's actually way more complicated than just living together.
Edit: filing taxes as if you're married is also often not enough to make you common law married either, but obviously ianal and you need one if you want to know if you are common law married or not.
yeah it is rare, but it terms of money it does get argued for things like alimony.