Unmarried Couples

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If you are a couple living together, but are not married or in a civil partnership, then it is important to consider instructing us to draft a Cohabitation Agreement to protect your financial interests.  

A Cohabitation Agreement is particularly useful where one party has a greater financial contribution than the other. 

A Cohabitation Agreement sets out the arrangements that will apply while you are living together and the practical arrangements that will apply in the event of the breakdown of your relationship.

To minimise challenge against enforceability of such an agreement, both you and your partner should obtain independent legal advice, provide full and frank financial disclosure, and ensure that the terms of the Cohabitation Agreement are fair to both parties. 

It is best to enter into a Cohabitation Agreement once you have moved in together.  

The issues that you may wish to cover in your Cohabitation Agreement may include, but are not limited to:

• Clarification on the ownership of the family home and how the family home will be divided upon separation, including contributions towards the deposit and mortgage payments

• Provision about how the mortgage payments, bills, assets, and home improvements are to be shared between you and your partner  

• How you will divide the family assets acquired during the relationship in the event of the relationship ending

• How will personal assets such as furniture, cars and other valuables acquired during the relationship be divided

• How will debts (such as loans, credit cards or any other joints debts) acquired during the relationship be handled

• If you have children together, who will care for the children, what will the living arrangements be, and how will financial responsibilities be handled (such as groceries, individual child needs, school fees etc) and who will have parental responsibility if you plan to have children in the future.

There are other ways to ensure you are legally protected if you are living together and are not married as follows:

Declaration of Trust 

It is also advised to have a Declaration of Trust in place to clarify ownership, particularly if you own the property in unequal shares or one partner moves into the other’s property. It is important that ownership is clearly recorded in the Declaration of Trust.

Having a Declaration of Trust is an effective way of clarifying ownership of a property and is generally considered to be conclusive evidence as to ownership in any court proceedings.

In some circumstances you may not need both documents; a Declaration of Trust may be sufficient, especially if all you wish to do is clarify ownership of the family home. However, to ensure all arrangements are watertight we strongly encourage you to get in touch to have a Cohabitation Agreement drawn up to prevent costly legal disputes later.

Make (or update) your Will

You should also consider having (or updating) your Will and life assurance to cover each of you against the financial consequences of the death of the other.  If you are not married, your partner doesn’t automatically have the right to your inheritance upon your passing. A Will (or updating your Will) is essential to ensure your partner and any children are legally protected. 

Having a cohabitation agreement in place provides full transparency. We also encourage this as it helps to avoid expensive legal disputes later. 

A little planning now can save years of stress and costs later. 

If this has got you thinking, contact us today for a FREE no-obligation 15 minutes telephone call on 020 7870 4868 or email us on info@fdasolicitors.co.uk with your request for a FREE call back.