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Cohabitation agreements in Florida: rights you have to write yourself Cohabitation agreements in Florida: rights you have to write yourself

Cohabitation agreements in Florida: rights you have to write yourself

Florida abolished common-law marriage for relationships formed after January 1, 1968 — more than half a century ago — and Florida courts have held that line without sentiment ever since. However long you've shared a home, a bank account, and a life in Florida, unmarried partners hold none of marriage's legal machinery: no equitable distribution, no alimony eligibility, no intestate inheritance, no homestead protections as a surviving partner, no default authority when one of you is in an ICU. Title controls. Contract controls. Everything else is a stranger's claim.

Florida adds a demographic reality that makes this gap unusually consequential here: enormous numbers of Floridians cohabit later in life — deliberately unmarried to preserve a late spouse's pension, Social Security strategy, or their children's inheritances. Sensible choices, every one. But they make the written agreement and the estate documents the entire legal structure of the relationship. There is no fallback.

What Florida's defaults actually do

The house follows the deed — and Florida's homestead rules, so protective of spouses, do nothing for an unmarried survivor, who can be removed by the decedent's heirs. Accounts follow their titles. No support obligation survives separation, whatever was promised or sacrificed. At death, intestacy routes everything to blood relatives; the surviving partner of decades has no automatic claim, no elective share, and possibly no say in the funeral. Florida enforces express contracts between unmarried partners — the consideration must be valid, independent of the relationship itself — but implied-agreement litigation is expensive archaeology with uncertain results.

The exception, as everywhere: children. Parentage, time-sharing, and child support run independent of marriage once parentage is established.

What a Florida cohabitation agreement should cover

  • The home — shares, contribution treatment (gift, loan, equity), survivor occupancy rights (critical, given homestead's non-protection of partners), buyout and sale mechanics.
  • Money and debts — joint versus separate, expense-sharing, unwinding rules with deadlines.
  • Contribution imbalances — the partner who retires early, relocates, or supports the other's venture gets what the agreement says. Florida law adds zero.
  • Coordination with the estate plan — for unmarried Florida couples this is inseparable: wills (there is no elective share to catch omissions), designations, powers of attorney, health care surrogates, and — for later-life couples — explicit terms interfacing with each partner's children and existing trusts. See estate planning.
  • Exit mechanics — administration instead of war.

Write the rules before you need them

Brown Carrington drafts Florida cohabitation agreements integrated with the estate plan — because in Florida, they're one system.

Straight answers.

Are cohabitation agreements enforceable in Florida?

Yes — written agreements with valid consideration are enforced under ordinary contract law. Write it; don't imply it.

Does Florida recognize common-law marriages from other states?

Generally yes, if validly created in a state that permits them — proving it is its own litigation. Nothing formed in Florida after 1967 qualifies.

We're older and deliberately not marrying. Is the agreement really necessary?

More than for anyone else. You've chosen a structure with no legal defaults — the agreement and estate documents are the structure. Skipping them leaves your partner legally invisible.

Does this apply to platonic co-owners?

Identically — siblings, friends, any unmarried household sharing property faces the same vacuum and uses the same fix.

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