Legal advice and agreements for purchasing property together
Safeguard your relationship, your investment and your future
Are you purchasing property as a co-owner along with friends or family, other than your spouse?
With increased finances, shared costs, and the opportunity to share the property and create lovely memories together it can be a wonderful arrangement.
But, co-ownership comes with considerable risk—you are individually and collectively responsible for meeting your financial and legal obligations. And if you disagree on how to manage things, or one party needs to sell, it can be costly.
We can help you consider all the details, have the tricky conversations upfront and create a co-ownership agreement that protects your interests.
So that you reduce the risks that can come with these arrangements and safeguard your relationship and your future.
How it works
Our fee to prepare a Co-ownership Agreement is $990, which includes two rounds of amendments and one conference.
Send us your info
We’ll ask for all your information upfront so the process is as smooth and as efficient as possible. Our handy online portal will walk you through exactly what you need to prepare so nothing is missing.
You can fill out the form together with your co-owners (we recommend over dinner and a drink!). This is usually a great starting point for having the conversation and ironing out a few details before meeting with our team.
Or you can complete the form on your own and we’ll send your instructions to all relevant parties.
If you’d prefer to get help to complete the form with a Nest Legal lawyer, we can jump on a videoconference with you and your coowners and tackle it together (book a standalone property conference here).
Our team reviews your info
Once we have all the documents and information we need, we’ll assign a lawyer to your job and get to work pulling together an official Co-Ownership Agreement for you to review.
We meet
We’ll get together with all the co-owners to discuss the details of the agreement, talk through options and alternatives, and make sure everyone is on the same page.
We’ll discuss a variety of situations, risks and factors, for example—
Who can live at the property or use the property and at what times of the year
If the property is an investment property, how rent is to be distributed between the co-owners
Who is responsible for making repayments on the mortgage (and what happens if they don’t)
Who is responsible for the maintenance of the property (and can they paint it purple if they so choose)
What happens when one of the co-owners decide they want to sell their share of the property
What happens if one of the co-owners dies or becomes bankrupt or loses capacity
What happens if there is a dispute
Happy days!
Once we have a final agreement signed by all parties you’re free to enjoy your joint purchase.
Our lawyers can also help you with
Existing co-ownership arrangements without a legal agreement
It’s never to late to set some ground rules and safeguard your future with a legally binding co-owenrship agreement—even if you’ve co-owned for years.
Get started with your co-ownership agreement
Financial agreements
Co-ownership Agreements between spouses aren’t binding in the case of the breakdown of the relationship. We recommend talking to one of our family lawyers about whether a Financial Agreement (i.e. a ‘pre-nup’) is right for you.
Explore our Binding Financial Agreement services
Wills and estates
A Co-ownership Agreement operates alongside your Will and must be consistent with it. If you are preparing a Co-ownership Agreement, it’s worth reviewing your Will at the same time to ensure everything is in order.