Cohabitation Agreements: Protecting Your Rights as an Unmarried Couple

Cohabitation Agreement UK

A cohabitation agreement is the single most useful document an unmarried couple can have, and most couples living together in the UK do not have one. That matters more than people expect. If you separate after 15 years in a house that only has your partner’s name on the deeds, the law does not ask whether the relationship was long or loving. It asks who owns the property, what each of you contributed, and what you agreed at the time.

That gap catches thousands of people every year, usually at the worst possible moment. This guide explains what cohabitation agreements actually do, what you can and cannot put in one, how much protection they really give, and what the proposed reforms might mean. If you have already separated, a separation agreement does a similar job after the event.

Do You Have Any Rights as an Unmarried Couple in the UK?

Far fewer than most people assume. There is no such thing as common law marriage in England and Wales, and there has not been for centuries. No matter how long you have lived together, whether you have children, or whether you share a surname, you do not acquire the rights a husband or wife has.

In practice, that means the following as things stand:

• No automatic share of the home: your claim depends on whose name is on the title, what you contributed, and what was agreed or intended when it was bought.
• No maintenance for you: there is no equivalent of spousal maintenance for a cohabiting partner, however much you gave up to raise children or support a career.
• No claim on a pension: pension sharing is not available to unmarried couples, and many schemes only pay a survivor’s benefit if you have nominated your partner.
• Nothing automatic on death: if your partner dies without a will, the intestacy rules pass their estate to blood relatives, not to you.

Where a dispute does arise over a home, it is usually resolved under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, known as TOLATA. These claims turn on evidence of contributions and intentions, often going back years, and they are slow and expensive to run. A cohabitation agreement is designed to stop that argument before it starts.

Is a Cohabitation Agreement Legally Binding?

A cohabitation agreement is a contract, and a court will generally uphold it where it has been made properly. Four things make the difference between an agreement that holds and one that unravels:

• Full financial disclosure: you each set out your income, property, savings, pensions and debts honestly before signing.
• Independent legal advice: each of you has the chance to take your own advice, from your own adviser, before you commit.
• No pressure: neither of you is rushed, pushed, or presented with it the night before a house completion.
• Clear, properly executed terms: it is in writing, signed, dated, and it says what it means without vague promises.

Get those four right and you have something solid. An agreement scribbled on a template at the kitchen table, with no disclosure and no advice, is far easier for a disgruntled ex-partner to challenge. The same logic applies to any agreement reached in mediation and made legally binding: the process behind the document is what gives it weight.

What Should a Cohabitation Agreement Include?

A good living together agreement covers the things you would otherwise have to argue about later. Most include:

• The property: who owns it, in what shares, and how any deposit, gift from family or inheritance is treated if you sell.
• The mortgage and bills: who pays what each month, and whether those payments build up a share in the home or not.
• Savings and possessions: what stays separate, what is genuinely joint, and how the car, the furniture and the pets are dealt with.
• Debts: who is responsible for which loans, overdrafts and credit cards, including anything taken out for the household.
• What happens if you separate: how long one of you can stay in the property, how it will be valued, and how any equity is divided.
• What happens if one of you dies: sitting alongside a will, since the agreement itself cannot override intestacy.
• Review points: a date or a trigger, such as a new baby or a move, when you both look at it again.

An unmarried couple agreement is only as good as the disclosure behind it, so gather the paperwork first. Mortgage statements, a recent valuation, bank statements, pension statements and a note of any family gift towards the deposit will cover most situations.

Can a Cohabitation Agreement Cover Children?

Only up to a point, and this is where people are most often misled. You cannot contract out of child maintenance, and you cannot bind a court on where a child lives or how much time they spend with each parent. A court always decides those questions on what is best for the child at the time.

What you can do is write down what you have agreed, which carries real practical weight even though it is not enforceable in the same way. Many couples pair their cohabitation agreement with a parenting plan, and our guide on whether a parenting plan is legally binding explains how far that goes. One point worth knowing if you are not married: a father is only automatically a legal parent with parental responsibility if he is named on the birth certificate, so check that now rather than later.

How Does a Cohabitation Agreement Differ From a Declaration of Trust?

The two are often confused, and many couples need both. A declaration of trust deals only with the property. A cohabitation agreement deals with the whole of your shared financial life.

If you are buying together with unequal deposits, a declaration of trust is close to essential. The cohabitation agreement then sits around it and handles everything else.

How Do You Put a Cohabitation Agreement in Place?

You can use a template, instruct a solicitor each, or work through it with a mediator. Mediation tends to suit couples who want one conversation rather than two sets of letters, and it keeps the cost and the tension down.

1Exchange your financial information

Both of you set out what you own, what you owe and what you earn. This is what makes the agreement hold up later, so it is not a step to skip.

2Agree the terms together

In mediation, a neutral accredited mediator helps you work through the property, the contributions and the what-ifs, and writes up what you decide. If you are already separating, the first step is to book a MIAM, a private meeting between you and a mediator to talk through your options.

3Take independent advice and sign

Each of you takes your own legal advice on the draft before signing, which is the step that most protects the agreement. Our fixed-fee legal advice packages are built for exactly this point in the process.

Will the Law on Cohabitation Rights Change?

Possibly, but not yet. The Ministry of Justice ran a consultation called A fairer end to relationships, which opened on 5 June 2026 and closed on 14 August 2026. It asked, among other things, whether there should be a statutory framework of financial rights for cohabitants on separation, and whether cohabitants should inherit automatically where there is no will.

As of September 2026 the responses are being analysed. Any new scheme would be narrower than the protections married couples have, and would still take time to become law. Until then the current position stands, which is why cohabitation agreements UK couples put in place now remain the practical answer rather than something to wait out.

Summary

Unmarried couples in England and Wales have no automatic financial rights against each other, whatever the length of the relationship. A cohabitation agreement fills that gap by recording ownership, contributions, responsibilities and what happens if you separate or one of you dies. It will be taken seriously by a court where there was honest disclosure, the chance to take independent advice, no pressure and clear terms.

It cannot bind a court on children or remove the right to child maintenance, and it does not replace a will. Reform has been consulted on but not enacted, so the document you sign now is still the thing that protects you.

Frequently Asked Questions