How much does a cohabitation agreement cost? Couples agreement prices in England and Wales

How much does a cohabitation agreement cost?

A couples agreement (also called a cohabitation agreement or a house buying agreement) can cost anything from £50 to a few thousand pounds. The price depends mostly on who writes it and whether each of you gets legal advice. When we surveyed 39 people planning to buy a home with their partner, cost was the second most common thing putting them off, named by 16. So here are the real figures, with where each one comes from. All prices were checked on 1 October 2026 and can change.

There are three main routes:

Route	What it costs
Write it yourselves	£50 for Advicenow’s template (£55 printed)
Guided online service	Varies; see below
Solicitor	£500 to £3,000 or more, says Advicenow

Writing it yourselves. Advicenow, a legal information charity, sells an editable living together agreement template for £50 as a download or £55 printed. There is £5 off if your household gets tax credits or state benefits (not counting Child Benefit or the State Pension). If your household income is less than £1,540 a month after tax, you can ask for a free copy.

A guided online service. These sit between a template and a solicitor. Prices vary a lot. For example, on 1 October 2026 one guided online service showed a fixed fee of £400 per person (£800 for a couple) for a simple cohabitation agreement on its homepage, with part of the fee paid to a lawyer. CoHabit’s written agreement is not available yet; its planned price is in our pricing section. Our free 10-minute conversation comes first, so you can see where you agree before you pay anything.

A solicitor. Advicenow puts solicitors’ fees at £500 to £3,000 or more. The fixed fees we found on firms’ own websites fall within that range (see below).

What do you get for the money?

The routes differ in more than price. The biggest difference is advice: a solicitor advises you on your own position, and a template or a guided service does not.

Route	You get	You don’t get
Template	A starting document to fill in	Advice, or help agreeing
Guided service	Help deciding together, then a written agreement	Legal advice, unless a lawyer is included
Solicitor	Drafting and advice for their client	Advice for the other partner, usually

With a template, the work of deciding is yours. Advicenow does not recommend making your own agreement without its template.

A guided service like CoHabit helps you talk through each question side by side, then puts what you both agreed in writing. CoHabit does not give legal advice. What you get is general information and a clear record of your decisions. If you want advice, you can each ask a solicitor to check it.

A solicitor drafts the agreement and advises their client on what it means for them. Several fixed fees we found cover one partner only. The other partner is then expected to take their own advice, which is a separate cost.

What fixed fees do solicitors publish?

When we checked five solicitors’ websites on 1 October 2026, their published fixed fees for one partner ran from £899 to £1,860 including VAT. Where a firm showed its fee plus VAT, we added VAT at 20%. These are examples, not an average, and not a recommendation.

Read what each fee includes before you compare them:

• Some include a first consultation, or a set number of hours of advice.
• Some only apply if you have both already agreed the terms.
• Some include drafting it as a deed.
• Some charge for work on an agreement that doesn’t go ahead, at their hourly rates.
• Some don’t include changes after you sign.

Why so few published prices? The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) requires firms to publish prices for some services for the public, such as residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, motoring offences, some employment tribunal claims and immigration. Family law work, including couples agreements, is not on that list. So many firms quote only after a first conversation. Ask for the quote in writing, and ask what is not included.

Why do solicitor prices vary so much?

Advicenow’s range runs from £500 to over £3,000. These are the main reasons, all taken from what the firms themselves say:

• How much you have already agreed. One firm’s fixed fee only applies when you have both reached agreement beforehand. Another says extra fees may apply if long discussions or disagreements take more than the advice time included.
• How complicated your money is. One family law firm says a straightforward agreement can cost as little as £500 plus VAT where the arrangements are reasonably simple. Another quotes separately for assets over £1 million or unusual complexity.
• Whether each of you takes advice. Two solicitors means two fees.
• Whether you make it as a deed. Advicenow advises you each to take independent legal advice if you make the agreement as a deed, which adds to the cost. Some firms’ fees include drafting it as a deed.
• VAT. Some firms show prices including VAT and some plus VAT. On a fee of £1,550, that is a £310 difference.
• Changes later. Updating the agreement after a baby or a pay rise may be a new piece of work.

The first point is the one you control most. The more you have decided together before anyone starts drafting, the less time a solicitor needs to spend.

Do we both need to pay for a solicitor?

You don’t need a solicitor at all to make a couples agreement. But Advicenow says courts are even more likely to follow an agreement if you each had independent legal advice, separately. Advicenow’s own suggestion for a deed is to use its template, then each ask a solicitor to check the draft you have prepared.

“Separately” is the part that adds cost. One solicitor acts for one of you. One firm we checked, for example, advises one partner and sends the agreement to the other partner and their solicitor. Another says both of you will need separate, independent legal advice.

Checking a draft may not cost much less than writing one. On 1 October 2026, one firm’s fixed fee was the same £1,550 plus VAT whether it prepares an agreement for you or reviews one prepared for you to sign. Ask for a fixed quote before you start, so you both know what you will pay.

It is worth paying for advice if:

• one of you is putting in much more money, or family money is involved as a gift or a loan
• one of you has children from a previous relationship
• one of you runs a business or has complicated debts or assets
• one of you will not be on the mortgage or the title
• either of you is unsure the agreement is fair to both

For more on how much weight an agreement carries, and why advice helps, read our guide to how much weight a couples agreement carries and how your agreement counts.

What does a declaration of trust cost on top?

A declaration of trust records who owns what share of the home. It does a different job from a couples agreement, which also covers bills, the mortgage, improvements and what happens if you split up. Citizens Advice suggests making a declaration of trust about how you share your property alongside a living together agreement.

There are two ways to get one:

• As part of your purchase. Your conveyancer can record your shares when you buy. Firms regulated by the SRA must publish their residential conveyancing prices and say what is not included, so check whether a declaration of trust is in the quote or an extra.
• As a separate document. On 1 October 2026, two firms we checked showed £304 and £399 including VAT for a deed of trust.

GOV.UK says that if you own as tenants in common you can each own a different share, which is where a declaration of trust is most useful. If you are not sure which way to own, read joint tenants or tenants in common?

A worked example: three routes for a £40,000 and £10,000 deposit

Alex and Jordan are not married. They are buying a £300,000 home. Alex puts in a £40,000 deposit and Jordan £10,000. They agree that if they ever sell or split, each gets their deposit back first and they share the rest equally.

Say they later sell for £330,000 with £230,000 of mortgage left, leaving £100,000. Under their agreement, Alex gets £65,000 and Jordan £35,000. With nothing written down, the starting point for a home in joint names is equal shares: £50,000 each. That £15,000 difference is what writing it down is about. Try your own numbers in the deposit split calculator.

Here are the three routes they compare, using only the sourced figures above:

Route	Cost for both	What they get
DIY with Advicenow's template	£50	A template to fill in, no advice
CoHabit, plus a solicitor check each	Our one price, plus each solicitor's quote	Help agreeing, a written agreement, then advice for each
Solicitor drafts, each partner advised	£899 to £1,860 for one, plus the other's advice	Drafting and advice for each

Illustration only. Solicitor figures are the published fixed fees above, checked on 1 October 2026. A declaration of trust would be on top in any route, unless their conveyancer includes it.

The template is the cheapest. It suits them if they are confident writing it themselves. They would still need to talk through each question, and neither of them would get advice.

A guided agreement plus a solicitor check means they decide together first, then each take the finished draft to a solicitor. Because the decisions are already made, the solicitors are checking rather than drafting from scratch. They should still get a fixed quote first.

A solicitor-drafted agreement costs the most and gives the most advice. With a £30,000 gap between their deposits, some couples would choose this. It is fair to both of them either way: Jordan’s own advice matters as much as Alex’s.

There is no right answer for every couple. The point is to pick the route that fits what is at stake, and to agree the decisions together first, which keeps the cost of any route down.

How can you keep the cost down?

1. Agree the decisions first. Deposits, shares, the mortgage, bills, improvements, who stays and how a buy-out works. Some fixed fees only apply if you have already agreed.
2. Use a template or guided service for the first draft. Then pay for advice on your own position, not for the drafting.
3. Ask for written, fixed quotes. Check whether VAT is included and whether the other partner’s advice is.
4. Do it before you complete. Your conveyancer can record your shares when you buy.
5. Don’t count on legal aid. GOV.UK’s list of what you can usually get legal aid for does not include making an agreement like this.
6. Check whether you qualify for a free template. Advicenow offers a free copy if your household income is under £1,540 a month after tax.

What should you do next?

1. See what your choices mean in pounds. Put your deposits into the deposit split calculator and compare the three splits.
2. Talk it through together. CoHabit’s free 10-minute conversation helps you agree, side by side, and your answers stay on your device. Start free, together.
3. Choose your route. A template, a guided agreement, or a solicitor. Our guide to a couples agreement for buying a house covers what goes in one.
4. Get quotes. From a solicitor for each of you if you want advice, and from your conveyancer for a declaration of trust.
5. Sign it, with a witness, and keep a copy each.
6. See a solicitor if family money, children from an earlier relationship, a business or a big difference in what you put in is involved. If one of you is paying a bigger deposit, read our guide to an unequal deposit when buying a house together.