How To Avoid The Pitfalls When Making a UK Prenuptial Agreement

A prenuptial agreement in the UK can help prevent pre-marital couples from falling into a dangerous financial trap, however they also have their own pitfalls which you should know about.

The worst case scenario is that a UK court could choose to disregard your prenuptial agreement should you fall foul of these.

For example, any prenuptial agreement (or prenup as it is often known) will probably not be enforceable in the UK if it can be shown that one or other of the parties did not get independent legal advice. This would certainly apply should the person who did not take legal advice suffer as a result of applying the conditions in the prenuptial agreement. Ideally UK courts want to see that both parties have been separately represented by an independent solicitor with experience of prenuptial agreements. Should either have been misrepresented - or not represented at all - the potential agreement will not be worth the paper it is written on and will therefore be discarded.

Also a UK prenuptial agreement will be challenged should either party not make a full and proper disclosure of his or her financial assets at the time it was entered into. The requires all your assets to be disclosed and where relevant included. An exception to this was demonstrated in the Crossley v Crossley case where the court decided that an in depth diclosure was not necesary where there has only been a short marriage and both parties were quite weathly.

Considering the potential pitfalls, it is advisable that you allow good time for your prenuptial agreement to be made. Ideally you should be looking for the contract to have been implemented by your solicitor at least a month or so before your wedding. If your prenup is created the moment before the wedding this could raise suspicions of duress which could be brought up later on.

Should you even consider delaying the date of your wedding in order to conclude a satisfactory agreement? The answer could be 'yes; if the issues involved are of sufficient importance to you. You must consider that the process of drafting a prenuptial agreement can take as little as a week where there are no complex issues or it can take a lot longer.

When deciding if to use a prenup you must look from the perspective of it potentially saving you lots of stress and money during a divorce. And following the recent case of the German heiress, Karen Radmacher, it is likely that the UK courts will be paying increasing attention to the contents of any prenuptial agreement when considering a financial settlement for divorce.


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Bonallack & Bishop are solicitors whom specialise in making a UK Prenuptial Agreement. If you want further information then contact a UK Prenup Solicitor today. Senior Partner, Tim Bishop is responsible for all major strategic decisions. The firm has grown by 1000% in 13 years and Tim sees himself as a businessman who owns a law firm.