Pre-Civil Partnership Agreements

What a Pre-Civil Partnership Agreement Does

A pre-civil partnership agreement is made before two people register as civil partners and records how they want their finances dealt with if the partnership ends. It does the same job for civil partners as a prenuptial agreement does for a couple who are marrying, and couples who have already registered use a post-civil partnership agreement.

Since 2 December 2019 section 3 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 no longer requires the two people to be of the same sex, so opposite-sex couples in England and Wales register civil partnerships too.

If the partnership ends, the court's financial powers come from Schedule 5 to that Act, which section 72(1) describes as corresponding to the provision made for marriages by Part 2 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. They run to periodical payments and lump sums under paragraph 2(1), and to property adjustment and sale of property orders under the later Parts, which the court may make on a dissolution, nullity or separation order or at any time afterwards. A pension sharing order can only be made on or after a dissolution or nullity order. Ending the partnership itself is covered on our civil partnership dissolution page.

Your agreement does not replace those powers. It is one of the circumstances the court weighs, and in the right case it may be the most compelling factor.

The Legal Test the Court Applies

Paragraph 20 of Schedule 5 requires the court to have regard to all the circumstances of the case, giving first consideration to the welfare, while under 18, of any child of the family. Paragraph 21(2) lists the particular matters, among them the resources and needs of each of you, your ages and the length of the partnership, the standard of living before the breakdown, contributions to the family including looking after the home, and conduct it would be inequitable to disregard.

There is no Supreme Court decision on an agreement made before a civil partnership. In Radmacher v Granatino, which concerned an agreement made before a marriage, the Supreme Court held that the court should give effect to a nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications, unless in the circumstances prevailing it would not be fair to hold the parties to their agreement. Schedule 5 corresponds to that scheme, so the same approach is expected when a civil partnership ends, and the Government's June 2026 consultation treats the two alike.

The first question is whether the circumstances of signing were sound. For full weight both of you must enter into the agreement of your own free will, without undue influence or pressure, and informed of its implications, and the court asks whether there was a material lack of disclosure, information or advice.

The second is whether it is fair to hold you to it now. Fairness has three strands: needs, compensation and sharing. Needs and compensation most readily make an agreement unfair: one of you left in real need while the other has a sufficiency or more, or one looking after the family while the other built up wealth. Where each of you can meet your own needs, an order in the agreed terms is the likelier outcome.

What the Agreement Can and Cannot Cover

Most of these agreements deal with:

• Property, savings and investments either of you owns now
• An inheritance, a family gift or a trust interest, received or expected
• A shareholding in a company, a practice or a farm
• A pension built up before the partnership; see pensions on separation
• How the home is dealt with, and whether either of you is to be maintained

There are limits. The parties cannot, by agreement, oust the jurisdiction of the court, as the Supreme Court put it, so a clause promising never to apply to the court carries no weight. Paragraph 68 of Schedule 5 makes such a provision void outright, but paragraph 67(1) confines that to an agreement made once you are civil partners or later, so a pre-registration agreement rests on the Supreme Court's statement instead. Nor can an agreement prejudice the reasonable requirements of any children of the family, and under section 9 of the Child Support Act 1991 a term restricting the right to apply for a child maintenance calculation is void.

The promise to register is not a contract either. Section 73 provides that an agreement to register as civil partners has no effect as a contract giving rise to legal rights and that no action lies for breach of it. If the plan is called off, section 74 applies sections 65 to 67 of the Act (contributions to improving property, and disputes about property) to property either of you had a beneficial interest in while the agreement was in force, and an application under section 66 or 67 must be made within three years of the agreement ending.

An agreement is not a court order. If the partnership ends and you both still accept the terms, we ask the court to make them into a consent order: paragraph 66 lets the court make the order in the terms agreed on the information the rules require, unless it has reason to inquire further. If one of you challenges the agreement, its weight is decided in financial remedy proceedings.

Disclosure, Advice and Common Problems

The circumstances in which you signed are the first thing the court looks at when the weight of an agreement is challenged. It weighs:

• Financial disclosure on both sides, so each of you has the information material to your decision
• Independent advice from separate solicitors, recorded in writing; the Supreme Court called sound legal advice obviously desirable
• Time to reflect: the case law sets no minimum period, but signing close to the registration makes it easier to argue that one of you was under pressure, which can reduce the weight the agreement carries
• The absence of duress, fraud, misrepresentation or unconscionable conduct such as undue pressure
• Your ages and maturity, and whether the partnership would have gone ahead on other terms

The problems that most often reduce an agreement's weight are a draft produced days before the registration, disclosure that leaves out a company interest or a pension, and one partner advised while the other was not. We can review an agreement you have already signed.

An agreement covering unknown future circumstances has more scope to become unfair, and the Supreme Court said that the longer a marriage lasts, the more likely that is. Where either of you, or your assets, are connected with another country, the agreement has to work in two legal systems: see cross-border agreements.

How the Process Works

1. Free consultation. You tell us what you want to protect and what each of you owns, and we explain what weight an agreement carries.
2. Disclosure. Both of you set out assets, income, pensions and debts, and we prepare the schedule, with valuations where needed.
3. Terms. We settle what stays separate, what is shared, how the home is dealt with and how needs and children are provided for.
4. Independent advice. Your partner instructs their own solicitor, and each of you takes advice before signing.
5. Signing. The agreement is executed as a deed, recording the disclosure each of you saw and the advice each of you took.
6. Review. We diarise a review for a child, a move, a sale, or a conversion into marriage.

Aim to finish well before the registration date. No rule of law sets a minimum gap: the Government proposed 28 days in June 2026, broadly in line with the Law Commission's 2014 recommended safeguards, and keeping to it makes it harder to argue that someone signed under time pressure.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Early advice matters most where:

• The registration is close and you have been handed a draft to sign
• One of you has much more than the other, or plans to stop work to care for a child
• A family business, a farm or a trust is involved
• Either of you has children from an earlier relationship to provide for
• Your right to be in the UK depends on your partner, which our civil partner visa page covers

If you feel pressured into signing, take your own advice first. In immediate danger call 999, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is on 0808 2000 247; our domestic abuse injunctions page explains the orders available. If you are neither registering a partnership nor marrying, a cohabitation agreement is the equivalent.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

RakLAW Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA number 8007405, and was founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati. Our office is at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge.

We draft pre-civil partnership agreements, advise you on a draft your partner's solicitor has produced, and review nuptial agreements made here or abroad. If one is ever tested we advise on its weight and act for you where it is disputed; our money and property pages explain how a settlement becomes an order.

A free 15-minute consultation is a sensible place to start, on 0203 345 2000. Our family law fees page explains how we charge, and we do not offer legal aid. Making the agreement does not involve the court, so no court fee arises; the GOV.UK court fees page covers the fees if you later ask the court for an order.