Katie Beale, a specialist in Family Law at Fraser Brown is advising that couples thinking of buying a house together should take out a cohabitation agreement before taking the plunge!
“At the moment, there is no specific legislation for cohabiting couples,” said Katie. “Most of their rights fall under family and property law, so there are a number of steps that they need to take in order to ensure that both are protected in the event of a break up.
“There is a commonly held belief by over half the British population that women who cohabit have rights under common law. However, this is a complete myth - there is no such thing as a common law spouse!
“So the first step to take is to draft a cohabitation agreement. This will ensure that a document is in place that outlines the intentions of both parties at the outset of the cohabitation. Although a cohabitation agreement is not currently legally binding, the courts will certainly take the document into consideration before deciding upon a settlement.
“In addition to this, it is vitally important that each partner pays towards the mortgage, as this will help to give both parties rights to the home. Unfortunately, arrangements where for instance one party pays the mortgage and the other pays household bills are not accepted as evidence that the intention was for each party to have an interest in the property.”
“Under Family Law, there is some protection in situations where children are involved. The welfare of the child is always an important factor in deciding upon a settlement and this takes into account income, earning capacity, property, financial resources and other factors.
“It is also very important that both parties make a will, because the rules of intestacy do not protect cohabitees, so in the event of one of the partners dying with no will in place, the estate is likely to be awarded to a blood relative.
“Drafting a cohabitation agreement may not be considered a particularly romantic thing to do, because couples have to think about what will happen in the event of the relationship breaking up. However, in my opinion, couples should simply view them as another kind of insurance policy.”
For more information about Fraser Brown’s family services, please contact Katie Beal on 0115 947 2541 or email kbeal@fraserbrown.com
For further information please contact Nick King or Kathryn Greenwood at Eden PR on 0115 852 4717, or email ‘nick@edenpr.co.uk’ or ‘kathryn@edenpr.co.uk’