a cohabitation agreement is a situation
where it’s a contract between two
parties that are that are cohabitating
on basically how they’re going to split
you know certain certain expenses so you
might see it in a situation where I
think you’re seeing it more often in
situations where let’s say a couple’s
been together for for a period of time
but they don’t want to pull the trigger
on actually getting married so that but
they’re buying a house together okay so
maybe you’ve got in this cohabitation
agreement who’s gonna be responsible for
what percentage of a mortgage and who’s
gonna pay the gas bill and who’s gonna
pay the electric bill or how you’re
gonna treat different things such as
that let’s say they take joint vacations
together so you might even treat you
know be treating that a certain way
that’s a situation that where it makes a
lot of sense where it also makes a lot
of sense is if you are a person who
makes a pretty fair amount of money or
let’s say you’ve saved a pretty fair
amount of money as well and you want to
be very very sure that this person is
not going to turn around and try to file
a divorce action against you and say
guess what we were informally married
and I want all of that stock that you’ve
had over there and I want this and I
want that if you’ve got a cohabitation
agreement that is signed by both parties
you know that’s fantastic evidence that
there was no informal marriage or else
why why the hell would you have signed
it so that’s a situation where I’d want
to do it if you’re trying to protect
assets if you’re trying to protect
yourself against what you perceive as a
possible threat of informal marriage
that’s a fantastic time to look at doing
something like that or if it’s just a
situation where you just need
clarification on I’m gonna pay these
bills and you’re gonna pay those bills
and here’s how we’re going to treat this
property that we are purchasing together
that’s another situation where I think
it’s a it’s a fantastic situation to to
enter into something like that now one
step that I think people need to take
more in in a situation like that is you
need to have an exit strategy – so if
you’re going to buy property together
you need to make sure that you deal with
what happens if everything goes awry you
what are the buyout provisions how is
that handled and that can be handled you
know 20 different ways from Sunday you
just got a you know sit down and talk
about it and make sure both of y’all
have canceled so you’re not going to sit
find yourself in a situation where
someone’s going to say oh I was forced
to do this and I didn’t know what I was
signing and all that just you know spend
a little more money dot the i’s cross
the t’s make sure that you do things the
right way you know and you typically you
get you get what you pay for I mean I
hate using that term but it’s true you
know so when you’re getting into you
know legal situations hire really
qualified counsel because they’re going
to help you get the best possible
results