cohabitation agreement

PaulB79

I have been asked to move in with my girlfriend which I am going to do once I have let managed to rent my flat out.

She wants us to complete a cohabitation agreement to protect her property if it all goes pear shaped.

I am happy to do this but would you recommend doing this through a solicitor or would one of the online templates be sufficient?

Thanks

fluffnutter

I think it's probably simply about recording your wishes, having those wishes witnessed (possibly) and keeping them somewhere safe. Whether or not these types of thing are legally binding is debatable - you can always take someone to court and argue your case at a later date if you change your mind on stuff.

Personally I wouldn't use a solicitor - they charge a fortune - but I would think very carefully about as many possibilities as I could. What happens in the future if you marry, have children, one of you loses a job and the other contributes more for a while, one of you gets a promotion with an enormous salary increase so the financial balance between you changes dramatically, you get a lodger or someone else moves in for some reason? Probably lots of other things to consider too. Things change, often rendering previous agreements void. Are you going to build longevity into your agreement and cover all bases or will you review and revise it periodically?

Tixy

I'd use a solicitor personally.
Its should only be a few hundred and could protect you both (or one of you) to the tune of many thousands.

I also think that having used a solicitor prevents any argument that one of your pressured the other in to the agreement against their will.