Guides for couples buying together
Plain-English answers for unmarried couples in England and Wales: what the law does by default, and what to agree.
Do we need one? 60-second checkRenting together
If things change
- Cohabitation law reform 2026: what's proposed for unmarried couples and what to do now
- Getting married after buying a house together: what happens to your agreement?
- Home improvements and your share of the house: does paying for them change it?
- If one of us dies: unmarried couples, wills and the home
- Moving in with a partner who owns the house: what to agree about money and rent
- One partner pays more of the mortgage: does that change who owns what?
- Partner owns the house, not on the deeds? Where you both stand
- Selling and buying again together: do your shares carry over?
- Unmarried couple having a baby, or one of you stops working: keeping the money fair
- Unmarried couples' legal rights in the UK: the home, money, children and death
- What happens to the house if we split up? A guide for unmarried couples
Tools
- Couples agreement template: what a good one does, and where blank ones fall short
- Do you need a solicitor for a cohabitation agreement? Couples agreement options compared
- How much does a cohabitation agreement cost? Couples agreement prices in England and Wales
- Deposit split calculator
- Rent split calculator
- If we sold today: sale proceeds calculator
- If one of us stays: what the one who stays pays
- Stamp duty calculator for couples buying together
- Family money: a gift or a loan?
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See all guidesHow we check our guides
- We research each guide from primary sources such as legislation, GOV.UK, HM Land Registry and court judgments, and from legal information charities such as Advicenow and Citizens Advice.
- Before a guide goes live, we fact-check it line by line against those sources. Each guide lists its sources and shows the date it was checked.
- We aim to check a guide again when the law or the rates it relies on change.
CoHabit isn't a law firm and isn't regulated by the SRA (the Solicitors Regulation Authority). Our guides are general information, not legal advice.
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General information for England and Wales, not legal advice.