4. Sign your agreement

There are rules about how you make an agreement. These rules are called formal requirements. These rules say your agreement must:

• be in writing
• have a date
• be signed by both people who are making the agreement
• be witnessed, which means you and your partner have to sign the agreement in front of another person
• be signed by the witness

If you don’t follow these rules, and you don’t agree later about your agreement, the court doesn’t have to order you or your partner to follow it.

There is no rule about what exactly you have to agree on in your contract. But you should be as clear and detailed as you can so that the agreement shows exactly what you and your partner agreed to.