What should be in a cohabitation agreement

Whether you agree to do or share something, or agree not to do or share something, you need to say so in your cohabitation agreement. All couples have property of some kind. If you break up, deciding how to divide that property without a cohabitation agreement can be a nightmare.

Dividing property after a divorce is one thing, but dividing property after a breakup is another. All states have laws that address how a married couple must divide their property after a divorce, but non-married couples have no such laws to fall back on.

Instead, couples living outside of marriage must either come to an agreement on their own or fight out any property disputes in court.

A good cohabitation agreement addresses all of the property you have now, as well as property you might acquire in the future, and makes detailed provisions for how all of it gets divided. While your agreement should address the specific property issues relevant to your relationship, there are key issues most agreements include. Apart from assets and debts, cohabitating with a partner often involves co-mingling income, sharing expenses, and some level of joint financial interests and responsibilities.

While some couples have no intention of sharing money, others freely give and take funds from one another without any accounting. Whichever camp you fall into, you need to discuss your preferences with your partner and include them in your cohabitation agreement.

Healthcare is another area in which there are significant legal differences between married couples and those living together outside of marriage. As a result, a cohabitation agreement should address any key healthcare issues you share. If you and your partner plan on having or adopting children together, or if either of you has children from a prior relationship, there are several issues your agreement must address.

That said, when it comes to questions about child custody and child support, courts always have the final word. For example, if you create a cohabitation agreement that says you agree to live with your partner in exchange for regularly having sex with her, a court will refuse to enforce that agreement. Lifestyle clauses, on the other hand, can include sexual conduct.

While courts are reluctant to enforce meretricious agreements, agreements with lifestyle clauses in them are often accepted. These clauses typically address infidelity and tend to include provisions that require the philandering partner to pay a financial penalty. However, the enforceability of these types of clauses is not always easy to gauge, so talking to a family law attorney about infidelity or similar lifestyle clauses is necessary if you want to ensure your agreement is enforceable.

Beyond infidelity, lifestyle clauses can also be used for issues not addressed in other parts of your agreement. For example, some people include lifestyle clauses that state where the couple will spend Christmas, when in-laws or relatives can visit, and even what happens if one partner gains too much weight.

There are some specific issues couples routinely face when their relationship ends that should be addressed in your agreement. These include which partner is responsible for moving out, what kind of notice you must provide to each other, and how long you have to find a new place to live. No one can predict the future, and a key part of any good cohabitation agreement is allowing for change. If you use our model, when you have finished drawing up the agreement, read it aloud.

This will help you detect errors. The next day, she printed the forms and we filled them out. Suzi As in the case of a marriage agreement, a cohabitation agreement must address the diversity of personal, financial and family problems that you and your partner may face in the event of an emergency or separation.

Doubling Technologies Regex Tester A powerful tool suite dedicated to regular expressions. Contact Joanne Houston on for free advice on cohabitation agreements. In this 20 minute session we will review your situation and how you can achieve your objectives.

This includes same sex couples and their families. Visit our website just-family-law. Therefore if any of the circumstances mentioned in this blog have application to you, seek expert legal advice. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Tel: Email: joannehouston just-family-law. Disputes over assets and finances can be costly—not only from a financial standpoint, but emotionally as well. Cohabitation agreements allow partners to agree in advance on support payment, property ownership, and distribution of assets. While a cohabitation agreement could work the same for a married couple or for a cohabitating couple, the law treats these relationships differently.

While a common law spouse may seek support from his or her partner, because they are not married, there is no right to seek equalization of matrimonial property and no possessory rights in the matrimonial home. A common law spouse may, however, have certain property rights when the relationship ends. Finalizing a Cohabitation Agreement requires that each partner retain his or her own family lawyer. Each party needs independent legal advice as well as full and complete financial disclosure by each party.

A Cohabitation Agreement can deal with one specific issue or can deal with many issues. As an example, one couple may choose a Cohabitation Agreement only to deal with the inheritance of one partner. A Cohabitation Agreement can be implemented at any point in the relationship, even after you have been living together and if the couple chooses to marry later on, the Cohabitation Agreement can automatically convert to a marriage contract. There are many different ways a Cohabitation Agreement can be used.

Perhaps one couple chooses to be financially independent of one another—the Cohabitation Agreement can memorialize this by stating each party is responsible for his or her own financial support and has sole rights to his or her own property.

A relationship that is more financially interdependent would naturally have different objectives in the Cohabitation Agreement. A Cohabitation Agreement must be prepared by an experienced lawyer to ensure it will be upheld in court if it were to ever be challenged.

Just as there are things that can and should be included in a Cohabitation Agreement, there are also certain things that cannot be included, such as:.