Cohabitation contract

B

Bigfoot

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Hi,

My solicitor is recommending that myself and my partner take out a cohabitation contract as we are buying a house, charging us 120€ to do it. I am reading that these are unenforceable in court. Is this the case? Has anyone done this?
Thanks
 
They are not legally enforcable, but if a judge is asked to decide who gets what,
in the event of a breakdown, the details of what you agreed when you bought
the house, and who contributed what, will help in making a decision.
 
If the house is in joint names I don't see why you would need one
To divide up the CDs?
No trying to be sarcastic but once I don't understand why you would need it
 
For married people, pre-nuptial agreements are not legally enforceable in this country - although I believe that ultimately they will be. Married couples have the benefits of Family Legislation when splitting up to work out who gets what.

Non married couples have no strict legislative protection other than strict contract law so agreements on property etc can be very important - primarily where one party is paying the lions share of deposit, stamp duty, fees and most of mortgage. Huskerdu has the right idea.

For both married and unmarried couples, it would be the norm for property to be held in joint names and there is then a straighforward presumption that everything is owned and paid for jointly which may not be the case.

And yes, you can do your own agreement - there is a precedent on this site if you search for it.

mf
 
I don't see why we would need one either, but solicitor says the law society recommend them. In case you have an ugly break up, even when the house is in joint names that only dictates what happens if one of you dies as far as i know? Anyway I was just wondering if anyone else had done it, don't think i'm going to bother forking out 120 euro for it.
 
I know someone who split up with his partner having bought a house.
He had paid the majority of the deposit and went to court to get his "fair
Share" back, instead of a 50:50 split.
He was successful. Of course every circumstnce is different, but it not as clear cut as it may seem that a joint ownership means a 50:50 split.
 
For the price of €120 as a % of the cost of the house I would sugest that you would pay it it could save a fortune down the road.
 
This thread might be of interest to you. I think that such contracts are indeed legally enforceable. On the other hand contracts that attempt to abrogate statutory married/spousal entitlements/obligations (pre-nuptial contracts) are not.
 
The best thing about the above Contract is that if one person gives more money towards the purchase or if their parents give money, its on paper who gave what and can't be disputed afterwards. The money can then be given back to the parties in question once the house is sold or bought out, whatever the case may be.
 
Ok - just to pick people's brains (and apologies for the semi-duplicate posting here):

1. if one partner's parents lend money toward the deposit, but don't have an interest in the house, is it wise to have this contract stating that they will be repaid if the house is sold? Does this affect FTB status?
 
It's possible that there could be implications:

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When we bought our house my (now) hubby put in more of the deposit but everything else was paid 50/50. We drew up an agreement detailing what would happen if we split...or one of us died. There are two different agreements - joint tenants and tenants in common. I think the only difference is that in the event of one partners death as joint tenants the other person automatically inherits the deceased persons half...but I'm not a solicitor.

Our solicitor didn't charge for drawing up the agreement (its was probably included in the price) but she definatly recommended drawing one up.

We all go into house purchase etc with our rose tinted glasses on, convinced that nothing will go wrong but unfortunatly it does.

Our situation was probably more complicated as we had to agree the split and how we would both benefit from the increase in the property value. But even in the case of a 50/50 purchase there are other considerations such as in the event of a split is the property to be sold, can one person buy out the other, at what value, who will do the valuation, timeframe for the sale to be completed.

In the event of death where there is a tenants in common agreement how do you value the deceased partners share, can the remaining partner buy out the person the share in the house is left to etc.

Personally no matter how cut and dried it seems now I wouldn't complete the purchase without an agreement in place..in fact I think you would be crazy to even think about not drawing one up...better spend €120 now and everyone knows where they stand...it could be the best €120 you ever spent.

By the way the agreement becomes null and void when/if you marry.
 
I thought that the tenancy agreement was a separate thing that is just part and parcel of the process?

I do think these agreements are a good idea- but had heard varying reports as to whether they are enforceable at the end of the day.

We are splitting everything 50:50 Joint Tenancy.
 
Hi There:-

Just a question about co-habitation agreements.

I'm buying with my partner, and we're going 50:50 on deposit, fees, mortgage, etc.

But we need to renovate the place and she has more of a lump sum than I do for that. The notion is that she puts more into the refurb 'sinking fund' now, and I reciprocate later (i.e. when my SSIA comes through!).

When drawing up a co-habitation agreement, should we factor in the refub costs, or just reflect the purchase price, fees, etc.?


Thanks in advance for your advice.
 
thanks for this thread, been a great help and should be kept up top.
my fiance and i went for martgage last year and they wouldn't approve her as she is in college. i got it on my own and now she is wanting proof of her share (and rightly so).
if i died or we split up, she would have nothing from the house and no proof that half of it is actually hers.
so how do i get her name on the deeds?? will she have to pay a gift tax or something, how much is this???
 
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