11. Divorce Solicitor / Soho / London / UK
With more and more heterosexual couples choosing not to marry but to share a life and a home together and with gay men and lesbians presently unable to enter into a form of ?marriage? carrying legal recognition, an agreement setting out each person?s rights and obligations in respect of the shared home for example is useful particularly where one party is moving into a property already owned by the other. Such agreements can deal with how the living costs are met and how any assets acquired together during the relationship/cohabitation are disposed of in the event of a separation.
A cohabitation contract/living together agreement freely entered into (with the benefit of legal advice) and where the parties intended to be legally bound by its terms may well be enforceable by the Courts (provided there is no provision for or reference to providing sexual services Sutton ?v- Mischon De Reya and Gawor & Co (2003) FLR 2004, High Court).
A cohabitation contract/living together agreement should be prepared as a deed in order for it to be binding.
The agreement should deal with who owns the property in which the couple are to live and how any mortgage repayments are to be funded. Where the property is held in only one of their names the parties need to consider whether contributions by the other towards the mortgage or indeed towards the cost of any major repairs will enable the non-owing partner to acquire a share in the property and if so the proposed share should be set out. The agreement may need to cover a situation whereby the non-owning partner makes capital contributions to the property in terms of funding the cost of extensive works of renovation or refurbishment or perhaps the cost of the building of an extension. How will this affect the beneficial ownership of the property?
David Josiah-Lake completed his law degree in 1989, before graduating in 1990 from the Guildford School of Law with Honours. His training then took him Chelmsford and two years as an articled clerk/trainee solicitor with Gepp and Sons, the largest solicitors practice in Essex, where he developed an interest in and a flair for family law work.
Since being admitted as a solicitor in 1992, David has chosen to specialise in all areas of family/divorce and children law, concentrating more heavily, however, on ancillary relief/family finance and co-habitation issues since 1996. Between January 1993 and June 1998, David was employed as a senior solicitor in the family law department of Cole and Cole (now Morgan Cole) in Oxford, during which time he sat on the advisory committees for both a drop-in centre for young single mothers and the Ethnic Minority Business Service.
David moved to London in June 1998 to join Fisher Meredith. Having spent almost 6 years (the last four of which as a Partner) with Fisher Meredith, in Decmber 2003 David determined that the time was right to take on a fresh challenge - to move on and go it alone. On April 16th 2004 David said goodbye to Fisher Meredith, ready to open a new chapter in his career - the task of setting up and running Josiah-Lake Solicitors.
http://www.josiah-lake.com/
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