| | Cohabitation Agreements |
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| |  | Cohabitation Issues
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If you are in a relationship, but not married, your interest in the relationship income, property and debt is almost completely unprotected by Illinois law.
You should consider a Cohabitation Agreement if any of the following apply to you and your partner:
- your relationship is serious;
- you are raising a child together;
- you own property together;
- you have debt together;
- you rely upon the income of one of you completely or to a larger extent than on the income of the other.
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| | | What is a Cohabitation Agreement
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A Cohabitation Agreement is like a Marital Settlement Agreement and Joint Parenting Agreement in the case of parties to a divorce, or like a pre-marital agreement in case of a couple about to get married. The difference is that a Cohabitation Agreement in Illinois is not a part of the break up of a relationship or even in anticipation of the possible breakup in the way that a prenuptial agreement is. Instead, an Illinois Cohabitation Agreement fills in what Illinois law has failed to provide. It sets forth rights and expectations of each of you as to the child or children you raise, the property you own, the debt you have and the income you each earn, or as to any one or more of these issues.
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| | | What if You Do Not Have a Cohabitation Agreement
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Say you live in a home in the name of your partner and you decide to split up. You have NO interest in that home, period. Illinois law does NOT recognize common law spouses or common law marriage. What if you are raising a child only adopted by your partner? You have almost no rights to the child, and most likely will at best be allowed to see the child occasionally, but just as likely, never.
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| | | Do Illinois Courts Enforce Cohabitation Agreements?
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Short answer, yes. Long answer, sometimes. There have not been many published cases dealing with these Agreements. The Agreements enforced were ones that were very specifically crafted, especially being careful not to appear to give rights that State law only gives to married couples. We can draft a Cohabitation Agreement for you, and while we cannot guarantee that it will be fully enforceable, we can guarantee that it will be prepared under the most recent Illinois law standards, carefully drafted and very likely to withstand judicial scrutiny.
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| | | Cost
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Whether you are not married by lifestyle choice, circumstances or because Illinois law does not give you the right to marry or form a civil union, we can help you. If you wish to protect your interests in what you have earned so that you can focus on investing in your relationship with similar protection that a married couple in Illinois has automatically, we can draft a Cohabitation Agreement for you:
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