You may not be aware of the fact that in law there is no such thing as a common law wife or husband.

Accordingly, you will gain no automatic rights in property merely by living together no matter for how long.

When you buy or lease a house or flat you can in fact spell out your shares, rights and obligations quite simply in legally binding form.

You can also make legally binding promises to each other about such things as mortgage repayments, bills, life insurance and pension provision and wills.

Just by owning property in joint names, or worse still in the name of one or other partner, may cause future difficulties and carry the risk of unpleasant time consuming and expensive legal argument, some times years later, about what you intended at the date of purchase as, under the law as it stands, a Court of Law would have to go back to your presumed intention as to your strict legal rights as at the date of purchase as there is nothing a Court can do to alter those strict legal rights no matter how unfair the result of enforcing them may seem.

When you buy property therefore it is very important to spell out precisely what you intend about who should own what, who should pay what and who should get what if you ever decide to separate.

At the same time it is also a good idea to consider a host of other points as well, for example, pension provision, life insurance and mutual wills.

In addition, if you intend to own property in joint names, there are two capacities in which that joint ownership may be held namely as a joint tenancy or as a tenancy in common.

The difference between the two is that with a joint tenancy the survivor of you will automatically become entitled to the whole of the property regardless of the terms of any will which either you have made or may wish to make. That may or may not reflect your wishes.

The other way property is held, that is, a tenancy in common, provides that you should each have un-divided shares in the property so that on your death the same will be distributed in accordance with your wishes as expressed in your will.

You can provide yourself with peace of mind and security concerning this at relatively low cost by entering into a Living Together Agreement with your partner. A Living Together Agreement is a formal document in which you and your partner define your financial relationship with each other.

Naturally, what you put in your Living Together Agreement is for you to decide and some couples may wish their financial affairs to be much more tightly regulated than others.

We feel that the best way to go about drawing up a Living Together Agreement is to discuss the matter through ourselves so that we may produce to you a formal agreement that sets out clearly and precisely in a simple and easy to understand language all the details of your agreement with each other.

We invite you therefore to discuss with us exactly what you would wish to achieve and we can provide you with a first draft which of course you can discuss with each other so as to be absolutely clear that you both understand it.

You may or may not each wish to take independent legal advice as to whether your position is properly secured. Again, that is a matter for you to decide.

We of course will amend the draft to reflect any alterations you want to see and once you are happy with the agreement this can be signed to enable you to both become legally bound.

Later amendments or alterations called "variations" can be made provided both of you agree at any stage, so you should periodically look at your agreement just to keep it up to date.

Naturally, if you wish to discuss this further with us before deciding what your instructions are please do not hesitate to contact us accordingly to discuss the advantages of a Living Together Agreement and more particularly, if you do decide to proceed with such an agreement, the kind of things you would wish to see included in the same.

For further information please contact Kate Ward on 01527 62688 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .