Unmarried couple buying/owning a flat

Real Estate
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I was wondering if you guys who own a flat/house with your partner made a specific additional contract to define what happens in case of a break-up. Did you make any Konkubinatsvertrag/Contrat de concubinage or any other type of contract to clarify what would happen in which cases?

I have a few unmarried friends who broke up after buying their flat and for some of them it was a battle to decide who should stay in the home or who should buy it, at what price etc… it was a nightmare and they had to go to the court to settle the case.

I read this article who is mentioning that the Domestic Partnership Contract would be good in order to avoid (reduce?) conflicts.

Here is the article (DE/FR):
Wohnen im Konkubinat - hausinfo

Acheter ou louer en concubinage - infomaison (hausinfo.ch)

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It can help but surely you will end up in front of the court.

The same thing happens if you married. There isn’t a (lot of) difference between married and unmarried couple if they both own an appartement or a house.

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Agree with Yanikuza. That was the feedback from our Notary also.

One key point is specifically putting in the house ownership contract on whether there is joint-ownership of the property and if so, what is the percentage (50/50 or 40/60, etc.)?

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Thanks for your feebacks.

I realize that having a contract wouldn’t avoid issues that ends to court, but I thought at least if you go to court with a contract you have a clear basis of what was agreed which could make things easier and leave no room to interpretation or change of mind.

When I asked the notary about it, he also said it was not common to do it, but I was expecting people to try to clarify things officially in order to secure both parties.

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The most important thing is that the title deed clearly defines the co-ownership shares, as Sirob mentioned. If you are not married, than you are buying the property as two separate entities, as would also be the case if you bought a property with a friend or through real estate crowdinvesting, for example.

The co-ownership shares will determine which portion of the porperty’s value is part of your assets. This determines how income earned from renting out the property is divided, how taxes related to the property are divided, how money from an eventual sale of the property will be split, and which portion of the property will go to your heirs when you die.

The only reason I can see for making an additional binding agreement is to regulate the rights to using the property. If you have both been living in the property, you may not be able to force the other co-owner to leave if this would put them in an awkward living situation.

For this reason, you may want to regulate which co-owner has the primary right to live in the building, and under which conditions (e.g. the amount of rent due to the other co-owner or the amount to be paid to buy out the other’s co-ownership share).

This does not necessarily require a concubineship agreement. It simply requires a legally binding contract signed by both of you. It would be beneficial to have the contract drawn up by a lawyer who specializes in this scenario.

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