Every guide to prenups says the agreement must be entered into freely, and most of the time the risk being described is ordinary pressure: a wedding date too close, a partner who pushes too hard. This guide is about the situation beyond that, where one partner controls the other. It matters for two reasons. An agreement signed under that kind of control is unlikely to survive in a family court, and the behaviour that produced it may be a criminal offence in its own right. If you are reading this because you recognise your own relationship, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, is free and confidential on 0808 2000 247 at any hour, and in an emergency you should call 999.
What coercive control is in law
Since 2015 controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship has been a criminal offence. Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes it an offence for a person to repeatedly or continuously engage in behaviour towards someone they are personally connected to, including a spouse, civil partner or partner, that is controlling or coercive, where the behaviour has a serious effect on the victim and the perpetrator knows or ought to know that it will. A serious effect means either that the victim fears violence will be used against them on at least two occasions, or that they suffer serious alarm or distress which has a substantial adverse effect on their usual day-to-day activities. The maximum sentence on indictment is five years' imprisonment.
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 then defined domestic abuse for the first time in statute, and put money at the centre of it. Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 provides that behaviour is abusive if it consists of physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse, or psychological, emotional or other abuse, whether a single incident or a course of conduct. Economic abuse is defined as any behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on a person's ability to acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or to obtain goods or services. Controlling what a partner earns, spends, owns or signs is, in law, a form of domestic abuse.
Why a prenup signed under control does not survive
The test for any prenup comes from Radmacher v Granatino. The court gives effect to a nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications unless in the circumstances prevailing it would not be fair to hold the parties to it. The Supreme Court was explicit about the first limb. Duress, fraud or misrepresentation negate any effect the agreement might otherwise have. Short of that, unconscionable conduct such as undue pressure, which the court said falls short of duress, and the exploitation of a dominant position to secure an unfair advantage, reduce or eliminate the weight the agreement carries; and the parties' emotional state, age and maturity, and whether either had independent legal advice, are all relevant. An agreement produced by a pattern of control is not a document a court will hold the controlled partner to, because the first thing it asks is whether that partner ever really agreed.
The contrast with the ordinary cases shows where the line sits. In Versteegh v Versteegh the Court of Appeal upheld an agreement signed the day before the wedding without legal advice, because the wife had understood it, had chosen it and had lived by it; her will was her own. Coercive control is the opposite fact pattern, and the features a court looks for are the ones the statutes describe: a partner isolated from family and advisers, denied information about the finances, told what they may and may not sign, and made to fear the consequences of refusing. The Law Commission's safeguards, financial disclosure of material information, independent legal advice for each party and signing at least 28 days before the wedding, are the practical test: a partner who is prevented from having any of them is, on the face of it, not acting freely.
What a prenup cannot be used for
Some terms are void or worthless whoever signed them, which removes much of what a controlling partner might hope to achieve. Section 34 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 makes void any term of an agreement that tries to restrict the right to apply to the court for financial provision, so a clause designed to leave the other partner with no claim at all fails as a matter of statute. Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 requires the court to meet each party's reasonable needs, with first consideration to any child under eighteen, whatever the agreement says. And the same section allows the court to take conduct into account where it would be inequitable to disregard it; the bar is high, but a course of coercive or economic abuse that has shaped the couple's finances is the kind of conduct that can clear it, so an agreement obtained by abuse can rebound on the partner who obtained it.
Protection during the marriage
Family law offers protection that does not wait for a divorce. Under section 42 of the Family Law Act 1996 the court can make a non-molestation order prohibiting a person from molesting someone they are associated with, including a spouse or partner, or a relevant child, and in deciding whether to make one the court must consider the health, safety and well-being of the applicant and any child. Breach is a criminal offence. Section 30 of the Family Law Act 1996 gives a spouse who is not on the title home rights in the family home, so a controlling partner who owns the house cannot lawfully put the other out. And the offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015 can be reported to the police at any time; economic control, including control exercised through documents, is within it.
If you are being asked to sign and feel controlled
Do not sign. Nothing in the law requires a prenup, and a wedding can go ahead without one. Insist on a solicitor of your own choosing, paid for in a way your partner does not control, and meet them alone; a solicitor acting for you alone is the safeguard the whole system relies on, and a partner who refuses it is telling you something. Ask for the financial disclosure you are entitled to. Take the time the Law Commission's 28-day guideline gives you, and use it to talk to someone outside the relationship. If the pressure is part of a wider pattern, the helpline above and the police both exist for exactly this, and our guide to prenups where one partner is vulnerable covers the additional safeguards where there is an imbalance of power or knowledge.
If you are the partner proposing the agreement
The same safeguards protect you. An agreement your partner had time to consider, with their own adviser, on full disclosure, with terms that provide for them fairly, is the only kind a court will follow. Pressure of any sort weakens it; control destroys it. Raise it early, as a joint plan, and if your partner wants changes, negotiate them. Our guides to duress and pressure and to what to do if a partner will not sign set out how to keep an agreement clean from the start.
Coercive control and prenups: FAQs
Is a prenup signed under coercive control valid?
A court will not give effect to an agreement that was not freely entered into. Duress negates it altogether, and lesser pressure or the exploitation of a dominant position reduces or removes the weight it carries.
Is pressuring someone to sign a prenup a crime?
Ordinary pressure is not. Repeated or continuous controlling or coercive behaviour that has a serious effect on a partner is an offence under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, and behaviour that controls a partner's money and property is economic abuse under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
What is economic abuse?
Behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on a partner's ability to acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or to obtain goods or services. Controlling what a partner may sign, own or spend is within the definition.
Where can I get help?
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline (Refuge) on 0808 2000 247, free and open at all hours; the police on 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise; and a family solicitor of your own for a non-molestation order or advice on the agreement.
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UK Prenup is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. A prenuptial agreement in England & Wales is not automatically binding, and both partners should take independent legal advice before signing.