Cohabitation Agreements: Protecting Yourself When You Live Together

This is the single most dangerous misunderstanding in UK family life. No matter how long you have lived together, or whether you have children, cohabiting couples in England and Wales do not acquire the legal status or protections of a married couple.

If you separate, you generally have no automatic right to:

• ✓A share of property held in your partner's sole name (unless you can prove a financial interest)
• ✓Your partner's savings, investments or business
• ✓A share of your partner's pension
• ✓Maintenance for yourself (spousal-style support)
• ✓Stay in the family home if you are not an owner or named tenant

A cohabitation agreement (sometimes called a ‘living together agreement’) is a written contract between you and your partner. It can cover:

• ✓Who owns the home and in what shares, and what happens to it if you separate or one of you dies
• ✓How you split the rent or mortgage, bills, council tax and day-to-day costs
• ✓Bank accounts, savings and how joint money is handled
• ✓What happens to debts, including whose name they are in
• ✓Ownership of cars, furniture, pets and other possessions
• ✓Arrangements and financial support for any children (though a court can always revisit children's needs)

A cohabitation agreement is a contract, and the courts will generally uphold one that has been made properly. To give yours the best chance of being enforced:

• ✓Put it in writing and sign it as a deed (witnessed)
• ✓Give full and honest disclosure of your finances to each other
• ✓Get independent legal advice, ideally each of you sees a different solicitor
• ✓Make sure neither of you is pressured into signing
• ✓Keep it fair, and review it after big changes, a new baby, buying a home, a change in income

You can find templates online, but because the document decides who keeps the home and the savings, most people are better off having a family-law solicitor draft or check it, a small cost now against a great deal of money and stress if you ever separate.

The rules are just as harsh on death as on separation. If your partner dies without a will, the intestacy rules give an unmarried partner nothing, everything passes to blood relatives, even if you owned a home together and shared your lives for decades.

• ✓Make a will leaving what you choose to each other, this is essential for cohabiting couples
• ✓Hold your home as 'joint tenants' if you want it to pass automatically to the survivor, or use a declaration of trust to set out shares
• ✓A surviving partner who was financially dependent may be able to claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, but that means going to court, which a will avoids

Scotland gives cohabitants some limited rights the rest of the UK does not. Under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 a former cohabitant can apply to court for a financial payment on separation (within one year), and a surviving cohabitant can apply on death (within six months), but these rights are weaker and less certain than a married spouse's, so an agreement still helps.

Northern Ireland broadly follows the same position as England and Wales, no common-law marriage and very limited automatic rights, so a cohabitation agreement and a will are just as important.