20 years ago I had a cohabitation agreement drawn up under which,
should we split up, I keep the house and buy out my GF's 50% share of
the house (which she bought at the then valuation) at the new
valuation.

The lawyer said the agreement must be fair to both parties and the
quid pro quo for me keeping the house is that I have to find the cash
very fast - within x weeks.

Is this kind of agreement still possible today? I have a new GF now
who is likely to buy about 20% of the house.

Thank you in advance for any input. Obviously I will go and see a
lawyer but most around here do just conveyancing.

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On 17/04/2025 10:14, Simon Parker wrote:

On 17/04/2025 07:42, Postman Pat wrote:

20 years ago I had a cohabitation agreement drawn up under which,
should we split up, I keep the house and buy out my GF's 50% share of
the house (which she bought at the then valuation) at the new
valuation.

The lawyer said the agreement must be fair to both parties and the
quid pro quo for me keeping the house is that I have to find the cash
very fast - within x weeks.

Is this kind of agreement still possible today? I have a new GF now
who is likely to buy about 20% of the house.

Thank you in advance for any input. Obviously I will go and see a
lawyer but most around here do just conveyancing.

The short answer to the question posed in your question is "No" whilst
the slightly longer answer is "Not yet". :-)

Surely, the short answer to the question is actually 'Yes'? As you
explained in your post, these agreements need to be in the form of a
deed. A deed setting out the proportionate ownership of a
jointly-purchased home is pretty common these days.

To answer your other question: Yes, cohabitation agreements are still possible today, in fact they're positively encouraged as everything can
be agreed and formalised whilst cool heads prevail rather than with a
pain of a break-up hanging over everything.

The background information to those answers is that in 2007, the Law Commission issued a report [^1] which made detailed recommendations
about updating the law surrounding cohabitation.  Reform has been in the
air since the report was issued without anything actually having changed.

The House of Commons issued an updated briefing in November 2022 [^4]
which includes a section on cohabitation agreements (Section 4 - page
27) along with sections on the aforementioned report by the Law
Commission (the links for which no longer work) and the calls for reform.

In October 2023 Emily Thornberry made a speech at the Labour Party
Conference announcing that Labour would reform the law for cohabiting
couples and the 2024 Labour Manifesto contains the following: "We will strengthen the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples."

There are currently no changes working their way through the sausage
machine that is regulatory reform in the UK so it is highly unlikely
anything will be changing any time soon, despite all the foregoing.

Where does that leave you?

The Law Society has produced a guide on the subject called "Moving in together: getting a cohabitation agreement". [^5]  I recommend that you
and your partner read it and use it as a basis for your discussions. The
Law Society estimates fees for the agreement could be anything between
£300 and £4,000 depending upon the complexity of the agreement but this
may be considerably cheaper than the legal fees for sorting things out without an agreement in place.  They recommend obtaining free estimates
from solicitors and shopping around, comparing both costs and services.

If you want more detail, AdviceNow [^6] published a document in December
2021 titled "How to make a living together agreement" [^7] which costs
£45 for the digital version and £50 for the print version.  Although it isn't free, the cost will be more than offset by paying reduced fees
with the solicitor drawing up the agreement as you will have all (Ed:
most!) of the answers needed and will not be paying them to sit and
listen whilst you and your partner discuss at length the answers to the questions they're asking you.

Part 4 of AdviceNow's guide states, in part, (and I can put it no better
than this):

"Living together agreements have a slightly odd status in law. They
aren't binding unless you write them as a formal legal deed, but the
court will usually follow them as long as what you agreed is fair, and
you were both honest about your finances when you made the agreement.  A court is even more likely to uphold the agreement if you both had some independent legal advice, separately, about what you were doing before signing the agreement.

"If you want to ensure it is binding, you can make it in the form of a deed.  It is advisable to do this if you want to make sure that the agreement about the ownership of the home is binding, for instance, or
if one of you is promising to pay something to the other.  We advise you
to each take independent legal advice if you are going to make the
agreement in deed form."

That last part is very important.

I wish you and your partner well.

Regards

S.P.

[^1] Titled "Cohabitation: The Financial Consequences of Relationship Breakdown" [^2]
[^2] It used to be here: https://lawcom.gov.uk/document/cohabitation- the-financial-consequences-of-relationship-breakdown/ but is no longer there.  However, there's a copy archived in the Parliament Library here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ media/5a7ca0e7ed915d12ab4bc10b/7182.pdf [^3]
[^3] It is 216 pages long.  Cohabitation Contracts and Opt-Out
Agreements are covered in Part 5 on pages 103-116.
[^4] Titled "'Common Law Marriage' and Cohabitation" which can be found
here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03372/ SN03372.pdf
[^5] https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/public/for-public-visitors/common- legal-issues/moving-in-together-getting-a-cohabitation-agreement
[^6] I am not connected with AdviceNow in any way, nor have I ever been.
[^7] https://www.advicenow.org.uk/get-help/family-and-children/ cohabitation/make-cohabitation-agreement

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On 17/04/2025 11:27, Simon Parker wrote:

Apologies for the confusion.  I shall don my stout hessian undergarments
and repent in ashes for the remainder of the day.

Today is the last day of Lent, so this seems quite appropriate.

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On Thu, 17 Apr 2025 16:28:08 +0100, GB wrote:

On 17/04/2025 11:27, Simon Parker wrote:

Apologies for the confusion.  I shall don my stout hessian
undergarments and repent in ashes for the remainder of the day.

Today is the last day of Lent, so this seems quite appropriate.

There might be a spare cross soon.

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Thank you both :)

I've just dug up the original document from 2005 and it says

===

Declaration of Trust

A description of my GF's purchase of 50% of the house.

If X and Y separate then Y moves out and X buys her share, and the
process will be as follows

Then it sets out deadline for e.g. if there is no agreement and how to
apply to the court for a sale of the house (that's if X does not come
up with the money within 3 months)

X and Y agree to make a Will giving the house to the other.

Signed as a Deed

===

So there you have it. The solicitor who did it was an old guy who was
very no-nonsense. He did a lot of divorces (which he did very well;
not the more common adversarial sort) and some commercial work. He is
now retired.

I guess in principle the same text could be used again, with the %
changed.

I must be absolutely protected from losing the house.

I'd happily send the document to someone who is a lawyer and whose
email address is valid and pay for his time. All advice is very
welcome :)

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On 17/04/2025 01:42, Postman Pat wrote:

20 years ago I had a cohabitation agreement drawn up under which,
should we split up, I keep the house and buy out my GF's 50% share of
the house (which she bought at the then valuation) at the new
valuation.

The lawyer said the agreement must be fair to both parties and the
quid pro quo for me keeping the house is that I have to find the cash
very fast - within x weeks.

Is this kind of agreement still possible today? I have a new GF now
who is likely to buy about 20% of the house.

Thank you in advance for any input. Obviously I will go and see a
lawyer but most around here do just conveyancing.

You don't mention children, which may well not be a relevant
consideration in your case. But where there is are a child or children
of a marriage or cohabiting relationship exist, agreements as to future maintenance of that child / those children may be limited in effect.

Child Support Act 1991 (as amended):

QUOTE:
S.9 Agreements about maintenance.

(1) In this section “maintenance agreement” means any agreement for the making, or for securing the making, of periodical payments by way of maintenance, or in Scotland aliment, to or for the benefit of any child.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall be taken to prevent any person from
entering into a maintenance agreement.

(2A) ...

(3) [Subject to section 4(10)(a) [and (ab)] and section 7(10),] the
existence of a maintenance agreement shall not prevent any party to the agreement, or any other person, from applying for a [maintenance
calculation] with respect to any child to or for whose benefit
periodical payments are to be made or secured under the agreement.

(4) Where any agreement contains a provision which purports to restrict
the right of any person to apply for a [maintenance calculation], that provision shall be void. [ ... ]
ENDQUOTE

IOW, it is not possible to make a valid agreement which rules out the
making of an application under the Child Support Act.


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No children indeed - we are about 20 years past the max age :)

But I have another Q:

Is it necessary for the cohabitee to purchase a share in the house?

When I was last doing this, c. 2005, I was told that you cannot have a
robust cohab agreement without a share being purchased, because it is
the re-purchase of that share (by the original homeowner) which forms
the basis of the agreement.

Without this, you can get into various arguments about how much the
cohabitee contributed, and how much compensation she is entitled to,
etc.

One barrister explained to me that two trusts can arise (from vague
memory, an arising trust and a resulting trust) and under the 1st one
she is entitled to the % increase in the value of the house, and under
the 2nd one she becomes entitled to a % of the entire equity, and this
is even if she paid nothing. The 2nd trust arises if the homeowner
made a promise that in return for her giving up a promising career he
will provide for her, etc and then they split up (this compensation is
then fairly predictable, of course).

In my case nobody is giving up any career; the cohabitee is retired.



JNugent <jnugent73@mail.com> wrote

You don't mention children, which may well not be a relevant
consideration in your case.

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