The Friendship Prenup: 12 Clauses for Buying a Home With a Friend
A mortgage is a thirty-year contract. A friendship isn't one.
You and your best friend, or your sister, or your old flatmate are buying a place neither of you could afford alone — and neither of you has said the word "exit" out loud. The free advice on this comes as one sentence: get a cohabitation agreement. Nobody tells you what goes in it.
This guide is the twelve clauses, the numbers to fill into each one, and the words for raising them with someone you love. By the end you will have a filled-in agreement covering the split, the running costs, the shocks and the exit — plus a one-page brief your solicitor can draft from, instead of billing you to work out what you meant.
Who it's for
- Two people who are not a couple buying together — friends, siblings, cousins — anywhere between "we should actually do this" and the week before exchange
- Anyone pooling unequal deposits, where fifty-fifty is the easy answer and not obviously the right one
- People who already co-own and wrote nothing down, working the clauses as a retrofit
- The parent lending the deposit, who needs third-party money to have a clause of its own
Who it's NOT for
- Married couples and civil partners — your property sits under a different regime, and an agreement between you carries much less weight
- Buy-to-let investment partnerships, where the tax and the structure differ
- Anyone hoping to sign something instead of seeing a solicitor. This is preparation for legal advice, not a replacement for it
- Buyers outside England and Wales who want the exact mechanisms — the twelve questions transfer, the forms and statutes don't
What makes it different
- Clauses, not encouragement. Twelve of them, each with a worksheet and a real default: the buyout formula and who values the house, the notice period, the deadlock ladder, the missed-payment trigger, the cross-option on death.
- The conversation is half the product. A scripted opening line for every clause, the answer to "don't you trust me", and a timed 90-minute agenda that gets it decided in one sitting.
- Real 2026 figures, sourced and dated. What a declaration of trust actually costs, what a RICS valuation runs to, what mediation costs per party, and the Stamp Duty rule that turns on your co-buyer's history rather than yours.
Book the ninety minutes
Written for England and Wales, checked August 2026. Not legal advice — it is the deciding, done properly, so the drafting is quick and the agreement says what you actually meant. Download it, fill your side in pencil tonight, and put the session in both calendars. If it doesn't help, contact us within 14 days for a refund.
What's inside
9 chaptersThe tools within
Not talk — toolsThe Co-Ownership Structure Decision Tree — Four questions that settle how you hold the title before the conveyancer asks
The Joint and Several Liability Stress Test — Five questions you each answer alone, then swap, before you apply
The Deposit Split Calculator — Run your real numbers through the three split formulas and pick one on purpose
The Running-Costs Ledger and Sinking Fund Sheet — Every recurring cost allocated, plus what the repair fund may never be spent on
The Buyout Formula Worksheet — Valuation method, deductions, windows and proof of funding, on one page
The Exit Ladder — Five rungs from written notice to forced sale, each with a day-count you fill in
The Partner Clause Checklist — The four things to agree before someone's partner is living there full time
The Shock Clauses Worksheet — Partners, letting, missed payments and death — four clauses on one sheet
The Cross-Cover Insurance Checklist — The four policies to price before completion, and who each one actually protects
The Twelve Conversation Openers — A scripted, deliberately flat first line for raising each clause
The 90-Minute Friendship Prenup Session Agenda — A timed agenda for the one sitting that gets it all decided
The Solicitor Brief Sheet — One page a conveyancer can draft from, instead of billing you to work out what you meant
The Twelve-Clause Quick Reference — The whole agreement condensed onto one printable spread
Sample pages
Straight from the PDFQuestions, answered
Does this apply where I live?
It is written for England and Wales — form TR1, form SEV, Stamp Duty Land Tax and the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. Scotland and Northern Ireland ask the same twelve questions through different machinery, so the questions transfer and the mechanics need checking locally.
Is this legal advice? Can we use it instead of a solicitor?
No, and no. It is preparation for legal advice. Deciding is the part that takes you two evenings and a solicitor several hundred pounds an hour, so this guide does the deciding and then hands your conveyancer a brief they can draft the deed from.
We are not buying yet. Is it too early?
It is the right time. Chapters 1 and 2 change what you save and how you record it, and the reflection period only exists if you start the week your offer is accepted rather than the week before exchange.
We already own together and never wrote anything down. Too late?
No. Chapter 1 covers what your title register says and how to sever a joint tenancy, and the twelve clauses work as a retrofit. Later than ideal, still worth doing.
Won't raising this offend my friend?
That is what chapter 5 is for. It gives you the framing sentence, the answer to "don't you trust me", a flat opening line for each of the twelve clauses, and what to do when one of you goes quiet.
What do I actually get?
A 37-page PDF, instant download, yours permanently. Thirteen named worksheets you print or copy onto paper — the point is two people filling in one sheet at one table, not two people reading the same file in different rooms.
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Every guide is held to one standard.
The topic changes — money, health, work, family — but the bar never does. Every guide is sourced and dated, reviewed by someone who knows the field, and pressure-tested against real use before it ships. That's why the next one earns your trust as much as the last.