Cohabitation Agreement

What is a Cohabitation Agreement?

A Cohabitation Agreement, sometimes called a living together agreement, is a written contract between two unmarried partners who live together or are about to move in. It records how you will share the costs of your home and what should happen to your property, money and belongings if you separate.

This agreement is drafted for couples in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules, so take local advice if you live there.

There is no common law marriage

Many people believe that living together for a number of years gives them the same rights as a married couple. In England and Wales it does not. However long you have lived together, and even if you have children, cohabitants have far fewer automatic rights than spouses or civil partners when the relationship ends.

• There is no automatic right to a share of property held in your partner's sole name
• There is generally no right to ongoing maintenance for yourself from a former partner
• Disputes over the home are decided under property and trust law, which looks at ownership and what you agreed, not at what seems fair
• If your partner dies without a will, you do not inherit automatically under the intestacy rules

A Cohabitation Agreement cannot give you the legal status of a married couple, but it puts your shared intentions in writing so there is far less to argue about later.

What a Cohabitation Agreement typically covers

Every couple is different, but most agreements deal with:

• Who owns the home and in what shares, or who has the right to stay if it is rented
• How you split rent or mortgage payments, household bills and other running costs
• Savings, bank accounts, investments and debts, whether joint or individual
• Furniture, cars and other belongings, including what each of you brought into the relationship
• Who keeps any pets and who pays for their care
• What happens to property and money if you separate, including how one partner can buy out the other
• How you intend to support any children

Terms about children only record your intentions. Where a child lives and how much time they spend with each parent are decided on the child's welfare, or best interests, and child maintenance is generally set under the statutory child maintenance rules, through the Child Maintenance Service or a family-based arrangement, whatever the agreement says.

Your home and the declaration of trust

The home is usually the most valuable thing a couple shares, and the most common cause of disputes. If you own it jointly, a declaration of trust (also called a trust deed) records the share each of you holds, for example a 70/30 split that reflects a larger deposit. It can be made when you buy or at any time afterwards.

A Cohabitation Agreement works alongside the declaration of trust rather than replacing it. The declaration fixes the ownership shares, while the agreement covers the wider arrangements, such as who pays the mortgage, how improvements are credited and what happens if one of you wants to sell. Make sure the two documents say the same thing.

• If the home is in one partner's sole name, the other usually has no share unless one has been clearly agreed or can be proved
• Changing the ownership shares in a property can affect tax and your mortgage, so check with a solicitor and your lender first

How to make your agreement more likely to be upheld

Courts in England and Wales generally treat a properly made Cohabitation Agreement as a binding contract. To give yours the best chance of being upheld:

• Put everything in writing and keep a signed copy each
• Sign it as a deed in front of a witness
• Give full and honest disclosure of your income, assets and debts
• Take independent legal advice, each from your own solicitor
• Sign freely, with time to consider the terms and no pressure from either side
• Keep the terms fair to both of you

When to review it, and when to see a solicitor

A Cohabitation Agreement should change as your life does. Review it, and update it if needed, when:

• You buy a home together, or one of you moves into a property the other owns
• You have or adopt a child
• One of you has a big change in income, an inheritance or new debts
• You decide to marry or form a civil partnership

A guided document gives you a clear starting point. For complex situations, such as a business, significant wealth, property abroad or children from a previous relationship, ask a solicitor to review the agreement before you sign. It is also worth making a will, because the agreement alone does not decide who inherits.