in this video i'm going to take a look at cohabiting couples and more specifically
cohabitation agreements it was an act brought in there into irish law in 2010 called the civil
partnership and certain rights of cohabitants act of 2010 this was intended to give civil partners
and cohabiting couples certain rights a cohabiting couple must have been in an intimate relationship
for five years or two years if they have a dependent child so if you are in a cohabiting
situation or a cohabiting arrangement this video will be of interest to you perhaps
also if you're thinking if you're thinking of moving in with somebody else and living together
and you're not married this will also be of interest
because you can have a cohabitation agreement drawn up which can really do two things one it can
determine or govern how you are going to deal with financial and other matters during and on
determination of the cohabitation arrangement so you might come to an arrangement in relation to
the existing property that you might have joint property that you might own
the contributions that you might make to the running of the house and so on alternatively
you can have a cohabitation agreement which will set aside or opt out of the provisions
of the civil partnership and certain rights of cohabitants act 2010 because section 202 makes
provision for a cohabitance agreement being valid if they have cohabitants have independently or
received independent legal advice and so on its agreement is is in writing it's signed by both
cohabitants and so forth so it's an agreement that can be entered into by the cohabitants
and it would make provision for the likes of legal advice sole property joint property
financial disclosure separate property opting out of applying for an order for redress as
provided in section 173 of the act opting out of an order provided in section 194 of the act
one of those sections deals with maintenance the other deals with a claim potential claim on the
estate of a deceased cohabitant he would also deal with the likes of personal maintenance division of
living expenses children including maintenance guardianship parenting arrangements it would
deal with debts it would deal with succession and inheritance termination of the relationship and
what will happen and the termination of the deed or the cohabitation agreement the agreement then
could also schedule or list the separate property of the parties and provide for the parties living
together with contributions they've made by the parties in an agreed proportion
so essentially a cohabitation agreement in irish law is now valid it's recognized in section 202
of that particular act and there's two broad ways you can use the cohabitation agreement
one is to opt out of the provisions of the act itself or two you can set out in the agreement
how you're going to manage your affairs how the cohabitants have got a manager affairs during
the cohabitation term and at the end of it hope you find this video useful my secretary josephine
told me to make it she said i needed to do this one because um a lot of people didn't know this
and she obviously knows so she does know we all know i suppose plenty of people living together
who would not be married and if the relationship breaks down if the cohabitation situation
comes to an end and the relationship breaks down badly things can get a bit messy teens
can cut up rough quite frankly and there is probation in that act for one cohabitant to seek
various orders from the other cohabitant by reason of their living together and under this act
provided they've been in an intimate relationship for five years or two years if they have a
dependent child hope you find this video useful if you do give it a thumbs up down below thanks a lot