The basics
- Both owners' full names and addresses
- The property's address and Land Registry title number
- The price, each owner's deposit, any gifts and the mortgage
- That you hold the home as tenants in common
Shares and money
- How the money is split when you sell: deposits back first, fixed percentages or equal
- What counts as the money to split, meaning the sale price less the mortgage and selling costs
- Who pays if a sale doesn't clear the mortgage
- Who pays the mortgage, insurance and repairs
- Whether paying more, including lump sums, changes anything
- What happens if one owner covers the other's missed payment
- How improvements are treated
Living there
- That both of you can live in the home
- What happens to the costs if one of you moves out
- That neither of you can take a lodger, let it out or borrow against it without the other's agreement
- Duties to keep it insured and in repair
Selling and buyouts
- How much notice either of you gives to sell
- Whether the other can buy you out, and how long they have to decide
- How the price is set, usually by an independent RICS valuer
- What happens if a buyout falls through
- What happens if one owner goes bankrupt
The legal parts
- What happens to a share if an owner dies
- That changes need a new signed deed
- How notices are given
- That each of you could take independent advice
- That it's governed by the law of England and Wales
- Signature blocks for both owners, each with a witness
What it shouldn't include
Bills, pets, cars and savings belong in a cohabitation agreement. A declaration of trust works best when it sticks to the home.
Sources
- Law of Property Act 1925, section 53
- Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989, section 1
- Land Registration Rules 2003, Schedule 4