The Hall Payne family law team are regularly approached by separated clients who want to make an agreement with their partner without going to court. We do all we can to encourage and facilitate that approach as court should only be used as a last resort. Amicable agreements allow them to retain good relationships with their partner which is especially useful if there are children.
There are pitfalls in not having the agreement carefully recorded once it has been reached. Oral agreements or ones written up with no formality are not enforceable or binding and if your partner changes their mind there is little you can do. You may each happily agree not to make any claim on the other person’s assets but if this isn’t properly documented, later claims can be made against those assets.

We have had lots of cases where a parent has moved children interstate thinking they had the legal right to do so as there had been no court orders. The courts have ordered the parent to go back to the area the whole family lived in before the move because the other parent objected.

While written parenting plans are often helpful and the agreements are signed by both parents setting out arrangements for children, they are not registered with the court and not legally binding. If you want certainty and enforceability then a parenting order by consent is what you need.