Living Together Agreements
What's a Living Together agreement?
Moving in with your partner is exciting. So, as you start your new life together, you're unlikely to be considering your legal rights, or how you're going to pay the bills. You're certainly unlikely to be thinking about what would happen to your home, sofa, bills etc if you split up.
A Living Together agreement needn't be like a celebrity pre-nup, where you don't want your partner to waltz off with your Beverly Hills mansion and a recording contract after 15 minutes of marriage. They aren't about "this is mine, that is yours, and you're not getting a penny out of me". Instead you can use a living together agreement to sort out the day to day workings of living together, and protect both you and your partner from whatever might happen to your relationship in the future.
Ideally you would make a Living Together agreement when you first move in together, but late really is better than never, so even if you've already been together for 15 years it's still a good idea.
Making a living together agreement prompts you to discuss how your living together will work in practice and what your expectations of each other are. In fact many of the couples we've spoken to say that they found that just making the agreement strengthened their relationship.
Making the agreement also helps you to organise the day to day finances of living together. It prompts you to think about easy and fair ways to divide the costs, and avoids those niggling little arguments about who is paying for the food and the gas bill that can sometimes mount up.
Can Living Together agreements be enforced in law?
Living Together agreements have a slightly odd status in law. The courts will not let you to sign away rights that the law gives you but a court will generally follow what you both agreed if:
- it still produces a fair result for both of you
- you were both honest about your finances at the start.
A court is even more likely to uphold the agreement if both of you also had some legal advice about what you were doing.
A second option would be to have it written by a solicitor as a formal legal 'deed'. If you did this it would be legally binding in the same way as any legal contract between two parties is.
A living together agreement is useful because, if you were to split up, it can help you to do it as amicably and fairly as possible.
Suggesting to your partner that you make an agreement isn't a declaration of the fact that you're about to dump them, or a suggestion that your partner may try to rob you blind. Even with the best intentions on all sides, if you do split up many, many years down the line it might be impossible to remember what you agreed.This may make things even more difficult if you do break up, making it harder for you to remain on good terms. It can also mean that, without either of you meaning to, you may come to an unfair arrangement. If you have the agreement you can at least be sure you will treat each other fairly.
The other thing to bear in mind is how you would be feeling if your relationship did end for any reason - neither of you are likely to be looking forward to lengthy rounds of negotiation! Instead you may feel like giving up and walking away leaving everything which wouldn't be fair either. If you have written your agreement already it can make it a lot less painful and drawn out, and fairer for both of you should you split up.
Making a Living Together agreement also greatly reduces the chances of your relationship ending in the worst possible way - in a long and bitter (not to mention expensive) court battle.
Download our 
Living Together Agreements (1.0 MB) leaflet for more information and an agreement that you and your partner can just fill in.
