Cohabitation Agreement · Fixed Fee
There is no such thing as a "common-law marriage" in South Africa. If you're not married, you have almost no automatic rights to property, support, or inheritance, no matter how long you've been together. A cohabitation agreement fixes that, in writing, this week.
One fixed fee. No hourly rates.
R2,950
Professionally drafted for your specific circumstances
Delivered within 5 business days
Myth and law
South African courts have been clear for decades: living together, even for twenty years, creates no automatic legal relationship between you.
You're not. Without a marriage, customary marriage or civil union, there is no joint estate, no accrual, and no automatic sharing of anything (the house, the cars, the savings) regardless of how long you've lived together.
Only if you can prove it. Without a written agreement, a partner claiming a share of property in the other's name must prove a "universal partnership" in court: slow, expensive litigation with an uncertain outcome.
Only in limited circumstances. Since the Constitutional Court's Bwanya decision (written into legislation from April 2024) a surviving permanent life partner may inherit if there's no will, but must first prove the partnership and a reciprocal duty of support, usually against the deceased's family. A written agreement and a will remove that fight entirely.
A cohabitation agreement is a binding contract that records what is separate, what is shared, who contributes what, and exactly what happens if you separate, so nobody has to prove anything later.
Where the law stands
Twenty years of court battles have improved cohabitants' position, but only piece by piece, and mostly for couples who end up in litigation. Here's the honest picture.
2005
The Constitutional Court refused a surviving life partner maintenance from her deceased partner's estate. The reasoning: the couple could have married and didn't, so marriage's protections didn't follow them. For sixteen years this was the wall cohabitants' claims broke against.
What it means for you: the law's default answer to unmarried partners was "no", and on separation during life, it still is.
2012
The Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed that cohabiting partners can prove a "universal partnership" (a partnership of their property) even without a written agreement, and that contributions like running the home count. In a separate case, a partner who proved a mutual duty of support could claim for loss of support when her partner was killed.
What it means for you: a partner left with nothing can claim, but only by proving, in a trial, what you could simply have written down.
2021
The Constitutional Court declared it unconstitutional to exclude surviving permanent life partners from inheriting where there's no will, and from claiming maintenance from the deceased estate, provided the partners had undertaken reciprocal duties of support. "Support" was given a wide meaning, including care and the emotional relationship, not just money.
What it means for you: real rights on death now exist, but they must be proven, usually against your partner's family, after your partner is gone.
2024
From 3 April 2024, legislation now includes permanent life partners who undertook reciprocal duties of support in the definition of "spouse" for inheriting without a will, and lets qualifying survivors claim maintenance from the estate. What Parliament still has not regulated, two decades after it was first proposed: what happens between partners who separate during their lifetime. That remains governed by nothing but contract, or litigation.
What it means for you: death is now half-covered by law. Separation is covered by nothing, except an agreement.
2025
Courts are now regularly finding universal partnerships between cohabitants: a 2025 Western Cape case found one after an eleven-year relationship, treating the couple's engagement as decisive proof. But the outcomes show the risk: that partner claimed 50% and was awarded 20%; other recent awards have ranged around 30% and 40%. Assets owned before the relationship stay protected, but their growth is in play, and even the winner faces a liquidation process and years of legal costs.
What it means for you: without an agreement, neither of you can predict the outcome, and unpredictability is expensive for both sides.
This is a plain-language summary of the legal position, not legal advice on your circumstances. The full judgments are public: Volks v Robinson (CC 2005), Ponelat v Schrepfer and Butters v Mncora (SCA 2012), Paixão v RAF (SCA 2012), Bwanya v Master of the High Court (CC 2021), and the Judicial Matters Amendment Act 15 of 2023.
What you get
Drafted for your actual circumstances from your questionnaire answers: your property, your contributions, your intentions.
Schedules recording each partner's separate assets and debts, and exactly what is jointly owned and in what shares.
Who owns it, who may live in it, what happens to it (and to the person living in it) if you separate.
How household expenses, bond or rent, and joint accounts are contributed to and managed while you're together.
How property is divided, how joint accounts are closed, and how much time each of you has, decided now, calmly, not later in a crisis.
Whether either partner will owe the other maintenance during the relationship or after it ends, your choice, recorded clearly.
How the agreement works alongside your wills so your partner is actually protected, with a discounted will for each partner available as an add-on.
How it works
Three steps. One fixed price. No office visits.
Step 01
Plain-English questions about you, your property and your intentions. About 20 minutes, together or separately.
Step 02
A complete, custom cohabitation agreement prepared under supervision of admitted attorneys and checked against current South African law.
Step 03
Delivered within 5 business days with a plain-English signing guide. Both partners sign before two witnesses, done.
Questions
Yes. It is an ordinary contract, enforceable like any other, provided both partners sign it freely and its terms are lawful. It is the most reliable protection unmarried couples can create for themselves under current South African law.
Time alone creates no rights. South African law has no "common-law marriage." Whatever protection you want, you have to create by contract, by wills, or by marrying.
Both parents' duties to maintain their children exist by law and cannot be contracted away. The agreement can record practical arrangements, but children's rights always remain governed by the Children's Act and, where needed, the courts.
Marriage changes your legal regime entirely, you'd then need an antenuptial contract before the wedding to stay out of community of property. Your agreement includes a clause dealing with what happens if you marry, and we can refer you to attorneys that can assist with the ANC.
It's not required for validity, but because one agreement serves two people whose interests can differ, each partner is free to have the draft reviewed independently before signing, and we'd encourage it where significant assets are involved.
Important: lawvero (Pty) Ltd provides document preparation services and does not provide legal advice. lawvero is not a law firm. Reserved legal work as defined in the Legal Practice Act is referred to attorneys that can assist. © lawvero (Pty) Ltd 2026 · law, verified.
Start your agreement
Plain-English questions about you, your property and your intentions. About 20 minutes, together or separately. One fixed fee of R2,950, delivered within 5 business days.