Guides
Guides pratiques pour les couples en concubinage : propriété, apports, conventions et liquidation.
- Agreements
Cohabitation agreement: what it should contain
A cohabitation agreement is a written contract between unmarried partners that records who owns what, how shared costs are split, and what happens to the home and savings if you separate.
Lire le guide → - Buying a home
Who owns what when you buy a home together
Ownership of a shared home follows what is registered in the title deed and what you can document — not who feels they contributed most.
Lire le guide → - Money
Unequal deposits — how to split ownership fairly
When one partner puts in more equity, the fairest solution is usually a waterfall settlement: each partner gets their documented contribution back first, and the remaining growth is split by agreed shares.
Lire le guide → - Separation
What happens to the home when cohabiting partners separate
Either partner can normally be bought out or force a sale of a jointly owned home. The dispute is rarely about the right to sell — it is about the valuation and the payout.
Lire le guide → - Basics
Cohabiting vs married: the key legal differences
Marriage triggers an automatic legal framework for property, inheritance and maintenance. Cohabitation usually triggers nothing — the rights you have are the ones you wrote down.
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Does paying more of the mortgage increase your ownership share?
Not automatically. In most countries ownership follows documentation and financing, not assumptions — so extra mortgage payments only count if they are recorded and agreed.
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Cohabitation agreement vs joint ownership agreement: what's the difference?
They are two different documents that complement each other: the joint ownership agreement regulates the property itself, while the cohabitation agreement regulates your wider financial life together.
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How should unmarried couples document renovations?
Renovations raise the home's value, but without receipts, photos and a running log the partner who paid often gets nothing back at sale or separation — especially when only one of you owns the home.
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What does a cohabitation agreement cost?
There are three realistic routes — a lawyer, a free online template, or an app-based agreement. The price tags differ, but the expensive option is usually having no agreement at all.
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Can you write your own cohabitation agreement?
Yes — in most countries a private agreement between partners is valid without a lawyer, as long as it is written, clear and signed by both. The real risks are vague wording and forgotten assets, not the missing lawyer.
Lire le guide → - Money
Moving into your partner's home: what you should know
Moving into a home your partner owns is common — and risky for the non-owner. Rent-like payments and shared expenses normally build you no ownership at all unless it is agreed and documented.
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What happens when a cohabiting partner dies?
In most countries cohabiting partners do not inherit each other automatically the way spouses do — so without a will and documented ownership, the surviving partner can lose both the home and shared assets to the deceased's legal heirs.
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Buying out your partner from the shared home: how does it work?
A buyout means one partner takes over the home and pays the other their share — based on a valuation, documented contributions and ownership shares, plus a bank willing to refinance the mortgage.
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How to calculate ownership shares when buying a home together
The ownership share should follow what each of you actually finances: set it from your equity contributions alone, or from total financing (equity plus loan shares) — and document the choice at the purchase, not years later.
Lire le guide → - Your rights
Common law marriage does not exist in England and Wales
No matter how long you have lived together or whether you have children, cohabiting partners in England and Wales get almost none of the automatic rights married couples have.
Lire le guide → - Ownership
Declaration of trust: what it is, what it costs and when you need one
A declaration of trust is the document that records who really owns what share of a property in England and Wales — and it is the single most useful thing an unmarried couple can sign when buying together.
Lire le guide → - Ownership
Joint tenants vs tenants in common: which should you choose?
Joint tenants own the whole property together and the survivor takes everything; tenants in common own defined shares that can be unequal and passed on by will. For unmarried couples, tenants in common is usually the safer choice.
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