{"id":12074,"date":"2020-09-13T07:03:19","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T12:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legaltalktexas.hammerle.com\/?p=12074"},"modified":"2025-06-18T17:17:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T22:17:39","slug":"cohabitation-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/estate-planning\/cohabitation-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"A Horrible End to a Beautiful Beginning &#8211; Cohabitation Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So you want to live with someone to whom you are not married?\u00a0 We call that \u201ccohabitating\u201d or \u201cinviting a lawsuit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cohabitation is legal, but that does not mean it is a relationship you should leap into lightly.\u00a0 Before you make the move, you should consider the cautionary tale of Stephen Carl Smith and Mary Deneve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smith and Deneve began living together in 1991. <a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/family-law\/texas-co-habitation-agreements\/\">They neither married nor signed a cohabitation agreement<\/a>. In 1998, they moved into a house in Dallas and titled it in Deneve\u2019s name only. In 2003 they bought a boat; this too was titled only in Deneve\u2019s name. When they separated in 2005, Deneve asserted that she owned the house and the boat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That apparently did not go over well with Smith. He claimed they had a common-law marriage, filed for divorce, and asserted he was entitled to his half of the property. (This, by the way, is a fairly common tactic).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps worried that his marriage claim was questionable, Smith creatively piled on more legal theories that might give him an interest in the property: implied cohabitation agreement, constructive trust, partnership\/joint venture, quantum meruit and resulting trust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was a lawsuit on steriods. Smith\u2019s legal theories were solid. Unfortunately, his facts were not. He lost. No house, no boat, no divorce, no partnership, no to any of the other theories pled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is instructive, however, is that those causes of action exist and could be used by any disgruntled former cohabitant against an ex.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What is Cohabitation?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/family-law\/marriage\/living-together-tips-and-traps-cohabitation-agreement\/\">Cohabitation is a relationship that anyone can enter<\/a> into at any time without formalities. It carries none of the protections or rights of marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That leaves both parties vulnerable. Without some type of writing, neither party has a right to make medical decisions for, or inherit from, the other. And while the parties can simply walk away from their relationship at any time, there are no legal guidelines for dividing their property or joint obligations such as rent.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What is A Cohabitation Agreement? And How Does it Work?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what could a cohabitant do to get some type of legal protection?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If both parties were willing, they could sign a written cohabitation agreement. It should be done with the same formalities as a marital agreement. At a minimum, it should state that the parties are not married and agree not to create a common law marriage, specify who owns what assets and how they will be divided in the event of a break-up, and make provisions for any jointly owned property or joint debt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each cohabitant should also have a personal set of documents \u2013 a will, powers of attorney, a HIPAA release and a designation of burial agent. These are important to either include, or exclude, the other cohabitant as an agent or beneficiary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If a cohabitant owns a decent amount of assets,\u00a0 then he or she <a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/practice-areas\/estate-planning-probate\/estate-and-trust-litigation\/\">should consider creating a trust<\/a> and moving those assets into it. That, at least, gives a fighting chance to keeping those assets intact if the relationship ends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you have to do this before cohabitating? Of course not. Should you do this? Of course you should. Money, sex, love \u2013 what is there not to fight about?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Get Legal Assistance for a Cohabitation Agreement at Hammerle Morris Law Firm<\/h3>\n<p><i><a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/lawyers\/virginia-hammerle\/\">Virginia Hammerle<\/a>\u00a0is a Texas attorney whose practice includes\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/practice-areas\/estate-planning-probate\/estate-planning\/\">estate planning<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/practice-areas\/elder-law\/guardianship\/\">guardianship<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/practice-areas\/estate-planning-probate\/probate\/\">probate<\/a>. Sign up for her newsletter at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:legaltalk@hammerle.com\">legaltalk@hammerle.com<\/a>. Contact Hammerle Morris Law Firm to <a href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/lewisville-attorney\/\">schedule a consultation at hammerle.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>This column does not constitute legal advice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So you want to live with someone to whom you are not married?\u00a0 We call that \u201ccohabitating\u201d or \u201cinviting a lawsuit.\u201d Whatever. Cohabitation is legal, but that does not mean it is a relationship you should leap into lightly.\u00a0 Before you make the move, you should consider the cautionary tale of Stephen Carl Smith and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1224,42],"tags":[1098,371,905],"class_list":{"0":"post-12074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-estate-planning","8":"category-wills-trusts","9":"tag-legal-talk","10":"tag-marriage","11":"tag-trusts"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Horrible End to a Beautiful Beginning - Cohabitation Nightmare | Hammerle Morris Law Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Non-married couples, do you have a cohabitation agreement? 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