A separation agreement can be useful for both married and unmarried couples, to record the agreement reached between you relating to finances and children. The agreement can include:

• How much each of you will contribute to rent/mortgage or household bills until you can vacate, sell or transfer your home.
• How to deal with any mutual debts.
• How to deal with any proceeds from the sale of a property, after paying off any outstanding mortgage balance or sale costs.
• How to deal with any pensions, joint bank accounts or credit cards.
• What will happen to items you’ve bought together, such as cars and furniture.
• What will happen to the family pets.
• Maintenance agreed to support one person and/or any children.
• Who the children will live with and when they will see the other parent.

If you have already agreed with your former partner what the agreement will include, we can offer a fixed fee service which includes an initial appointment to take detailed instructions and provide legal advice and drafting the agreement for £600 plus VAT.

You may feel that you need legal advice on the terms of the agreement or help in negotiating what will be included. We can assist with this as well and costs will be charged at our hourly rate of £200 plus VAT.

If you are married or in a civil partnership but not yet ready to issue divorce or dissolution proceedings, it is a good idea to have a separation agreement in place to record what has been agreed and this can then be put into a court order in the future once the divorce or dissolution proceedings are underway. There will be additional costs in preparing the draft court order for approval by the court.