Getting married after buying a house together: what happens to your agreement?

What changes when you’re getting married after buying a house together?

Lots of couples buy first and marry later. If you are getting married after buying a house together, the paperwork you made as an unmarried couple does not disappear, but the rules around it change. This guide covers England and Wales. It is general information, not legal advice.

While you are unmarried, the law treats you as two separate people who share a home. If you split up, the home is dealt with by ordinary property law: whose name is on it, the shares you recorded and what you both intended. The government’s 2026 consultation says the courts’ powers here are largely confined to deciding who owns the property and ordering a sale. That is why a couples agreement (also called a cohabitation agreement or house buying agreement) and a declaration of trust carry so much weight.

Marriage, or a civil partnership, brings in a different set of rules. If you later divorce, a family court can make financial orders under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (the Civil Partnership Act 2004 has the same powers for civil partners). It can:

• order one of you to pay the other a lump sum or regular maintenance
• order one of you to transfer property, including your share of the home, to the other
• order the home to be sold, or share a pension

It decides by looking at all the circumstances, giving first consideration to the welfare of any child of the family under 18. Married partners also have a legal duty to support each other, which unmarried partners do not, Citizens Advice says.

So the short version: your old agreement still tells a story about what you both intended, but on divorce it is one thing the court considers, not the rulebook.

Is a couples agreement the same as a prenup?

No. They are made for different legal situations.

A couples agreement is made between unmarried partners. It sets out who put in what, how you share the home, who pays the mortgage and bills, and what happens if you split. Advicenow, a legal information charity, says courts usually follow one if it is fair and you were both honest about your money. Advicenow also says a living together agreement ends if you marry, because the law takes over. Our guide to how courts treat a couples agreement explains how much weight one carries while you are unmarried.

A nuptial agreement is made with marriage in mind. A prenuptial agreement is signed before the wedding, a postnuptial agreement after it. It sets out what you want to happen to your money and property if you divorce.

Could a divorce court treat your old couples agreement like a prenup? There is no rule that turns one into the other. The court looks at all the circumstances, so an earlier agreement can be one of them. But the Supreme Court’s test is for nuptial agreements, made with marriage in mind, and Advicenow says a living together agreement ends if you marry. Our suggestion, not a rule of law: don’t rely on a couples agreement to do a prenup’s job.

Question	Couples agreement	Nuptial agreement
Made by	Unmarried partners	Partners marrying, or married
Written for	Splitting up while unmarried	Divorce
How courts treat it	Usually followed if fair and honest	Given effect unless unfair
Can it stop a court deciding?	No	No

What does a divorce court look at?

Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 lists what the court must consider. The welfare of any children under 18 comes first. Then, in plain terms: each of your incomes, earning capacity and resources; your needs and responsibilities; your standard of living; your ages and how long the marriage lasted; any disability; what each of you contributed, including looking after the home and family; conduct, only if it would be unfair to ignore it; and benefits either of you loses, such as a pension.

The government’s 2026 consultation describes how the courts use these factors. Both of you are ordinarily entitled to an equal share of what you built up during the marriage, unless there is a good reason to depart from equality. But it says most couples do not have enough for that, so in most cases the split is based on needs, such as a home for each of you and for the children.

What about a home you bought before you married? The courts generally do not share property one of you brought into a marriage, as long as both of you have what you need. But the Law Commission says the courts’ answers are not consistent on two questions: whether property one of you bought in your own name before the marriage, while you lived together, counts, and whether the family home can be kept out of sharing at all. As quoted by the Law Commission, Lord Nicholls said in a 2006 House of Lords case (Miller v Miller; McFarlane v McFarlane) that the family home, even if one of you brought it into the marriage, “usually has a central place in any marriage” and should normally be treated as shared.

So a bigger deposit paid before the wedding is not automatically protected on divorce, and it is not automatically lost either. It is one of the things the court weighs.

Does your declaration of trust still matter after marriage?

Yes, but it does a different job.

Under general property law, marriage does not by itself change how your home is registered or rewrite the shares in your declaration of trust. The declaration still:

• records what you both intended when you bought, in writing and signed
• fixes the size of each share if you own as tenants in common, and each share passes under its owner’s will (or the intestacy rules) if one of you dies

What changes is divorce. Section 24 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 lets the court order one of you to transfer property to the other. So it can make an order that leaves the home split differently from your declaration. The declaration becomes evidence of what you agreed, which the court can take into account, not the final answer. Our guide to a declaration of trust explained covers what it does while you are unmarried.

Question	Unmarried and you split	Married and you divorce
What decides the home	Your shares and what you intended	The court, looking at all the circumstances
Declaration of trust	Conclusive about shares	Evidence the court considers
Couples agreement	Usually followed if fair (Advicenow)	One of the circumstances
Maintenance for a partner	Not available	Can be ordered
Pensions	Court cannot share them	Can be shared

How would this work for Alex and Jordan?

Alex and Jordan buy a home together in joint names, as tenants in common. Alex puts in a £40,000 deposit and Jordan puts in £10,000. They sign a couples agreement and a declaration of trust that say the same thing: each gets their deposit back first, then the rest is split equally.

If they had split up unmarried with £100,000 of equity, here is what their agreement says each would get:

What Alex and Jordan's agreement says, from £100,000

Their agreement	Alex	Jordan
Deposits back first	£40,000	£10,000
Rest split equally	£25,000	£25,000
Total	£65,000	£35,000

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

Three years after buying, they marry. They do not look at their agreement again. Over the next ten years they have two children, Jordan goes part time to look after them, and Alex’s pay rises. Then they divorce.

If they cannot agree, it is up to the court. No one can predict a court’s numbers, so we won’t guess. But we can say what it would look at:

• The children come first. The court gives first consideration to their welfare, and a home for them, and for whoever they mainly live with, is a central need.
• Needs and earning power. Jordan earns less after years of part-time work. Alex earns more. The court looks at both of their incomes and earning capacity, now and in future.
• Sharing. What they built up during the marriage is ordinarily shared equally unless there is a good reason not to.
• The deposits. Alex can point to the £40,000 paid before the wedding, and the agreement and declaration show both of them meant it to come back first. But after a ten-year marriage, with the home as the family home, the court is not bound to treat it as Alex’s alone.
• Their agreement. It shows what they both intended when they bought. It is one of the circumstances, but it was made for an unmarried couple, years before the children.

The result could be close to the agreement, an equal split, or something else if the children’s and Jordan’s needs require it. The agreement wasn’t wrong. It was fair for the life they had when they bought. Their life changed, and so did what is fair to both of them.

What would have helped? If, before the wedding, they had each taken separate advice, shared full details of their money and signed a nuptial agreement, a court should give effect to it unless it would not be fair to hold them to it, and it still could not prejudice the reasonable requirements of their children. It would have been written for the marriage they were actually entering.

What else changes when you marry?

Your couples agreement is not the only thing to look at. Marriage, or a civil partnership, changes several rules at once.

What changes	Unmarried	Married or civil partners
Wills you made before	Still valid	Cancelled, unless made with this marriage in mind
No will	Partner inherits nothing under the intestacy rules	Spouse inherits some or all
Inheritance Tax	No partner exemption	Spouse exemption applies
Gifts between you	Capital Gains Tax may apply	Usually no Capital Gains Tax
Right to stay in the home	No automatic right if not an owner	“Home rights” for a spouse who isn’t an owner

Wills are the big one. Under the Wills Act 1837, getting married cancels any will you made before, unless the will shows you expected to marry that person and meant it to carry on. Forming a civil partnership has the same effect. GOV.UK says the same. If you each made a will when you bought, leaving your share of the home to the other, you will probably need new ones after the wedding.

The Law Commission recommended ending this rule in its May 2025 report on wills. The Ministry of Justice said in February 2026 that the government would make further announcements once it had considered the report. When we checked on 1 October 2026, the rule was still in force.

If one of you dies without a will after you marry, the survivor inherits under the intestacy rules. Citizens Advice says that where there are children, the spouse gets the personal belongings, the first £322,000 (the figure since 26 July 2023) and half of the rest; with no children, the spouse gets everything. That is very different from the unmarried position, where a partner inherits nothing under the intestacy rules (though a home you own as joint tenants still passes to the survivor). Even so, a new will lets you choose, for example to provide for children from an earlier relationship.

Home rights matter only if one of you owns the home and the other does not. A spouse or civil partner who is not an owner can register them with HM Land Registry, which can help stop the home being sold.

For the full picture of what living together does and doesn’t give you, see unmarried couples’ rights in the UK.

Should you get a prenup or a postnup?

That is for the two of you to decide, ideally with advice. Some couples are happy to leave it to the court’s usual approach, which looks at your circumstances at the time you divorce. Others want more certainty, for example when one of you is putting in much more, family money is involved, or one of you has children from an earlier relationship.

If you do want one, the Supreme Court’s decision in Radmacher v Granatino (2010) sets out what makes a court more likely to follow it:

1. You both enter it voluntarily, without undue pressure, and understand what it means.
2. Nothing material is missing. The court asks whether there was a material lack of disclosure, information or advice. Sharing full details of your money and each taking separate legal advice help with this.
3. It is fair when the court comes to look at it. A court should give effect to it unless, in the circumstances at the time, it would not be fair to hold you to it.
4. It looks after any children. It cannot be allowed to prejudice the reasonable requirements of the children of the family.

Before or after the wedding? Either works. The Supreme Court said there is not necessarily a material difference between an agreement made before marriage and one made after it. If you are already married, a postnuptial agreement can cover the home you bought before.

Timing. There is no legal deadline today. The Law Commission recommended in 2014 that, under a future scheme, an agreement made less than 28 days before the wedding should not qualify, to limit the risk of pressure as the day gets closer. That recommendation has not become law, but it is a useful guide. Don’t leave it until the week of the wedding.

The law may change. The government’s consultation “A fairer end to relationships” ran from 5 June to 14 August 2026. It proposed “qualifying nuptial agreements”, which would let couples decide in advance how their finances would be arranged on divorce, with safeguards to make sure needs are met and to protect against coercion. When we checked on 1 October 2026, the government was analysing the responses. Our guide to cohabitation reform in 2026 covers the proposals for unmarried couples.

What should you do next?

1. Talk about it together, early. Getting engaged is a natural point to look at your couples agreement side by side. What still feels fair? What has changed since you bought? If you are not yet married and haven’t written anything down, CoHabit’s free 10-minute conversation helps you agree the basics, and your answers stay on your device. Start free, together.
2. Check your numbers. See what equal shares, deposits back first and shares in proportion would mean now, using the deposit split calculator.
3. Decide whether you want a nuptial agreement. If you do, each of you should see a family law solicitor separately, and share full details of your money.
4. Sign well before the wedding. Give each other time to read, ask questions and take advice. Weeks, not days.
5. Make new wills. Either make them before the wedding, saying they are made with this marriage in mind, or make them straight after it.
6. Keep your declaration of trust and agreement safe. They still show what you both intended when you bought, and they still matter if one of you dies. See how your agreement counts for how the pieces fit together.
7. Review it as life changes. Children, a career break, a big change in pay or an inheritance are all good moments to look again.