Do you need a solicitor for a cohabitation agreement? Couples agreement options compared

Do you need a solicitor for a cohabitation agreement?

Do you need a solicitor for a cohabitation agreement? No. In England and Wales there is no rule that a solicitor must write one, and Advicenow sells a template for couples who write their own. What a solicitor adds is advice on your own position, and that does make a difference: Advicenow, the legal information charity, says courts are even more likely to follow an agreement if you each had independent legal advice, separately.

So the real question is which route fits you. A couples agreement (also called a cohabitation agreement or a house buying agreement) can be made in five main ways, and there is a sixth choice: not making one at all. This guide compares all six, fairly, with prices only where we could find a source. All prices were checked on 1 October 2026 and can change. It covers England and Wales only, and it is general information, not legal advice.

You are not alone in weighing this up. When we surveyed 39 people planning to buy a home with their partner, 16 said they would use a solicitor to write it down, 9 would write it themselves and 5 would not write anything down. Cost was the second most common thing putting people off, named by 16.

What are your options, side by side?

Here are the six routes, what each costs and what you get. Firms are not named here; for dated examples from firms’ own websites, see our guide to what a couples agreement costs.

Route	Rough cost	What you get
Do nothing	£0 now	The default rules (see below)
Template	£50 for Advicenow’s	A document you fill in yourselves
CoHabit	Conversation free	Help agreeing together; written agreement not available yet
Fixed-fee solicitor	£899 to £1,860 including VAT (October 2026), one partner	Drafting, usually with advice, for one of you
Solicitor, quoted	£500 to £3,000 or more	Drafting and advice for their client
AI chatbot	Varies	Draft wording, no advice

The fixed fees are the published prices we found on firms’ websites on 1 October 2026, including VAT. Several cover one partner only. The £500 to £3,000 or more range is Advicenow’s figure for solicitors’ fees. CoHabit’s price for the written agreement is in our pricing section.

The second thing to compare is advice. Of these routes, only a solicitor gives you legal advice on your own position.

Route	Independent advice?	Best for
Do nothing	No	Equal money, joint names, both happy with equal shares
Template	No, unless you add it	Confident couples with simple money
CoHabit	No, add a solicitor check	Deciding together first, then writing it down
Fixed-fee solicitor	Yes, for their client	Agreed terms, wanting advice at a known price
Solicitor, quoted	Yes, for their client	Complex money, family money, a business
AI chatbot	No	Ideas and plain wording, checked elsewhere

None of these is right for every couple. The more money is at stake, and the bigger the gap between what you each put in, the more advice is worth paying for.

What happens if you do nothing?

Doing nothing costs nothing today. It is a real choice, and for some couples it is a reasonable one. But you should know what you are choosing, because the law fills the gap.

• Home in joint names. The starting point is that you own it equally, even if one of you paid more. The Supreme Court confirmed this in Jones v Kernott (2011). The partner claiming a bigger share has to prove you both intended it.
• Home in one name only. The other partner has to prove they were meant to have a share at all, the government’s 2026 consultation explains.
• No marriage-style rights. Citizens Advice sets out how living together differs from marriage in law. The government’s consultation says there is no legal status of “common law marriage” in England and Wales, however long you live together.

How you own the home matters too. GOV.UK explains that joint tenants have equal rights to the whole property, while tenants in common can own different shares. If you put in the same amount, own in joint names and are both happy with equal shares, the default may already match what you want. If not, writing it down is how you make the outcome match what you both meant.

Where do a template and CoHabit fit?

Both put the two of you in charge of the decisions, at a lower cost than a solicitor. Neither gives legal advice.

A template is a ready-made document you fill in. Advicenow’s living together agreement template costs £50 to download or £55 printed, with £5 off if your household gets tax credits or state benefits (not counting Child Benefit or the State Pension), and a free copy if your household income is under £1,540 a month after tax. Other templates we found ranged from £13.99 to £24 (see our couples agreement template guide). Advicenow does not recommend making your own agreement without its template. The risk is not the template itself but how it gets filled in: blanks left as “TBC”, numbers never tested, or one partner drafting alone.

CoHabit takes a different route. Our free 10-minute conversation walks you through up to 16 questions side by side, so you decide the answers together before anything is written. Your answers stay on your device. Our written agreement, built from those answers, is not available yet; its planned price is in our pricing section. CoHabit does not give legal advice. A solicitor check for each of you is still worth considering, and it is what Advicenow suggests for anyone making their own agreement as a deed.

Whichever you use, the same rules apply. The Law Commission says the ordinary rules of contract apply to agreements between partners like this. A homemade agreement can be clear, fair and signed in front of a witness just as a solicitor’s can. See how your agreement counts for the steps that add weight.

Online fixed-fee or high-street solicitor: what is the difference?

Both are solicitors. The difference is mostly how they price and how you meet them.

Fixed-fee services, some of them online, publish a price up front. The published fixed fees we found on 1 October 2026 ran from £899 to £1,860 including VAT. Read what the fee covers before you compare: some include a first consultation, some cap the hours, and some only apply if you have already agreed the terms. Several act for one partner and expect the other to take their own advice, which is a separate cost. Our cost guide lists dated examples by name.

A solicitor who quotes after a first meeting may suit you if your money is complicated, or you want someone local. Advicenow puts solicitors’ fees at £500 to £3,000 or more. Why don’t more firms publish a price? The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) requires published prices for some services, such as residential conveyancing and uncontested probate, but family law work like this is not on that list. Ask for a written quote that says what is and is not included, and whether VAT is in it.

For either kind, check two things:

1. Are they regulated? Legal Choices, the website run by the legal regulators, says that with an unregulated legal adviser you won’t get all the protections you would with a regulated one. You can check a solicitor or firm on the SRA’s Solicitors Register.
2. Who are they acting for? One solicitor acts for one partner. If you both want advice, you each need your own.

Advice is especially worth considering if one of you is putting in much more, 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, one of you will not be on the mortgage or the title, or either of you is unsure the agreement is fair to both.

Can an AI chatbot write our couples agreement?

It can produce wording. In our survey, 5 of 39 said an AI chatbot is where they would look first. Used carefully, a chatbot can help you list questions to discuss or turn a decision into plain English. But it is a different thing from the other routes, and it helps to be clear-eyed about what it is not.

• It is not legal advice. A general chatbot is not a solicitor or other regulated legal adviser, and it does not act for either of you. You cannot find it on the SRA register.
• It can be confidently wrong. The SRA’s warning notice of 17 August 2026, written for the solicitors it regulates, says AI tools can produce convincing statements and references that have no basis in fact. In our view, the same caution makes sense when couples use one.
• The law depends on where you live. Property law for couples is different in Scotland, Northern Ireland and other countries. Check anything a chatbot tells you against sources written for England and Wales, such as Advicenow, GOV.UK and Citizens Advice.
• Practical tip: think about what you paste in. Your finances are private. Read the tool’s privacy terms before sharing details.

A practical way to use it: decide together, write it down, then check the result against a trusted source or with a solicitor. Don’t let a chatbot make the decisions for you, and don’t sign anything neither of you fully understands.

Which route fits? A worked example

Alex and Jordan are not married. They are buying a £300,000 home in joint names. Alex puts in a £40,000 deposit and Jordan £10,000. They both mean “each of us gets our deposit back first, then we share the rest equally”. They weigh up three routes.

Route	Cost for both	What gets recorded
Advicenow template, filled in together	£50	Their decisions, in their own words, no advice
CoHabit conversation, then a solicitor check each	Free to start, then each solicitor's quote	Their decisions, checked by a solicitor for each
Solicitor drafts, each partner advised	£899 to £1,860 for one, plus the other's advice	A drafted agreement, with advice for each

Illustration only. Solicitor figures are the published fixed fees we found on 1 October 2026. A declaration of trust, recording their shares when they buy, would be on top in any route unless their conveyancer includes it.

Time. The CoHabit conversation takes about 10 minutes. How long the rest takes depends on how quickly they agree and, for a solicitor, how busy the firm is, so they ask for a timescale with each quote.

Years later they separate and sell for £330,000, with £230,000 of mortgage left. There is £100,000 to divide.

What they had in writing	Alex gets	Jordan gets
Nothing: the starting point is equal shares	£50,000	£50,000
An agreement: deposits back first, rest equal	£65,000	£35,000

Illustration only. It ignores selling costs, tax and who paid the mortgage each month. Try your own numbers in the deposit split calculator.

With nothing written down, Alex could argue for more, but would have to prove they both meant it, from memories Jordan may honestly recall differently. With a clear agreement, any of the three routes records the same answer, and a court can take it into account. Each route gives them the £65,000 and £35,000 split on paper; what changes is how much advice sits behind it.

It is fair to Jordan too. Jordan knows exactly what they will get, and a good agreement would also say how Jordan could buy Alex out. With a £30,000 gap between their deposits, advice for each of them is worth considering, and Jordan’s matters as much as Alex’s.

What should you do next?

1. See your numbers. Put your deposits into the deposit split calculator and compare equal shares, deposits back first and shares in proportion.
2. Decide together first. Whatever route you choose, it is cheaper and clearer if the decisions are made before anyone drafts. Start free, together: it takes about 10 minutes, side by side.
3. Pick your route. Use the tables above. If you are unsure how much weight an agreement carries, read our guide to how much weight a couples agreement carries.
4. Get written quotes if you want a solicitor, one for each of you, and check they are on the SRA register.
5. Tell your conveyancer how you will own the home and in what shares, so they can record it when you buy.
6. Sign with a witness, keep a copy each, and set a review date.
7. See a solicitor, separately if you can, if family money, children from an earlier relationship, a business or a big difference in what you put in is involved.