Can someone help me write a cohabitation agreement?

n4t4li386

Me and my partner have been together 10 years, bought our house 2 years ago, but as my credit was bad we could only get in in his name. we pit £12000 of our own money as deposit and split half the mortgage, which come out of my account. I want to write an agreement as in a previous argument he said its his house as its his name and i wont be entitled to anything. which when buying it we agreed it was split. We are okay now but as this has stuck in my mind I want to do it for the best. I just need help on how to write it, so it covers myself for half the property if split.He has agreed to sign it and I will get 2 witnesses. Maybe somebody could draft one which I could copy please?

AnotherJoe

Read your post again and see if you can find the words "impending disaster due to badly written and as a result invalid DIY agreement" written there. I can see them I'm sure

Get it done properly.

n4t4li386

Sure I was asking for help on here not a sarcastic comment?

*~Zephyr~*

natalieh4eva1 wrote: »

Sure I was asking for help on here not a sarcastic comment?

Sarcasm aside, what AnotherJoe says is right - for the sake of the £100 or so it will cost, it's worth getting a proper one drawn up at a solicitors.

The cost to you of an unenforceable DIY job is half the equity in the house.

Speak to a few local solicitor firms and ask for an idea of the cost. It won't be very much and it will be worth every penny.

antrobus

natalieh4eva1 wrote: »

Sure I was asking for help on here not a sarcastic comment?

Actually "Get it done properly" is pretty good advice.

Get a solicitor to draft the agreement. And while you are about it get some wills drafted as well.

But if you are really committed to the DIY route, type 'deed of trust template' into Google and you'll find plenty to help you.

AnotherJoe

natalieh4eva1 wrote: »

Sure I was asking for help on here not a sarcastic comment?

Well it may have been mildly sarcastic ( I thought it was mildly humorous and I did put a smiley but each to their own) but it was done with best intent in your interest, to make a very serious point, which was "get it done properly". That's not sarcastic.

ACG

I would say get it done properly and then think about the relationship.

I bought "my" house solely in my name with all of my own deposit about 3 years ago. But my girlfriend has paid half in to a bank account every month. If we ever split up, minus my deposit we would split the difference. To hold something over you like that is pretty poor and it will always be playing on the back of your mind. Thats added to the fact that it was me who paid for the kitchen, bathroom, carpets, boiler etc.

Can you imagine getting to court with a badly drawn up contract? Any half decent solicitor would rip it to pieces in seconds. Would he invest a grand in a decent solicitor in order to keep however much equity is in the house? If I was that way inclined I would.

maninthestreet

Get married instead??

*~Zephyr~*

maninthestreet wrote: »

Get married instead??

If he's the kind of bloke to say in an argument "... its his house as its his name and i wont be entitled to anything..." in a thinly veiled threat of leaving her with nothing, I'd say he is hardly the sort of man she'd want to be marrying!!

getmore4less

Judging by the number that come here with useless agreement drawn up by professionals getting it done properly is not that easy.

You need to cover how the ownership is split various ways to do this but yours should be relatively simple if you paid 1/2 each on he purchase costs/deposit and split the mortgage

Then you need to cover the can't pay won't pay and how that will effect ownership or the debt owed.

AND more important

All the exit scenario triggers and what happens.
deaths
Splits
kids

do you sell if one moves out do you get lodgers to cover shares.

do you put a time limit on a buy out

ETC.

Mojisola

This - http://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-make-living-together-agreement - gives advice about the things you need to decide.