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dipsy

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BitterAndTwisted

There is no automatic entitlement, especially if someone's only contribution is their time. If you have a mortgage on your property be very careful about accepting any monies from them that could be interpreted as making a contribution towards mortgage payments, like you making mortgage payments and the other person paying bills or council tax of an equivalent monthly amount. Helping to lay carpets and clearing sheds? No, that's what a friend would do without expecting payment or claiming any rights.

dipsy

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pigpen

You will need proof he has not contributed though.. such as.. he had no income/was unemployed.. bank statements showing your money going into the account and the mortgage payments going out.

foxwales

It is something called "Beneficial Interest" and does not only apply to mortgaged properties. Where a couple co-habit for a long period of time, it can be assumed that they are sharing financial responsibility for household contents, maintenance and general living.

Your partner could lay claim to a portioned entitlement of any goods or property which could be deemed jointly owned even not through legal contracted entitlement (e.g. Mortgage - deeds).

If indeed you are talking about a mortgaged property, then your options are to either accept payment in financial terms or in time contributed to the maintenance and general day to day living by your partner as their share towards the up-keep of the property, in which case they could argue beneficial interest, or, you get them to sign a waiver which forgoes any interest or privelage that they could possibly lay claim on the property.

Its not very cut and dry i'm afraid. The law gets very unclear and messy when it comes to co-habiting couples and property.

xmaslolly76

I always thought there was no such things a common law husbands/wives and if you werent married and nothing is in joint names then its tough on the person who's name it isnt in. Has the law change recently ??

74jax

dipsy wrote: »

cool thats what I told my mum, his name is on nothing, he pays nothing, he owes thousands lol... so him doing tap job/carpet job etc entitles him to nothing surely his name has to be on bill/voting resiter etc?

So are you saying he lives with you but is not on the voting register at your address?

A similar thing happened to me about 6 years ago. My ex lived with me but we split. He made a claim on the house, saying although he didn't contribute money and could prove he didn't have any to contribute (the reason he left) he said he helped round the house and updated the house, fixed things etc and so helped maintain the home.

It all got extremely messy. Luckily (or unluckily I'm not sure) I had a criminal case going against him and I was told him claiming off me for money would be a civil case and you can't have a criminal and civil case at the same time. The criminal one went on for years and he never followed up the money for the house, but I was told he can certainly make a claim. Whether it gets awarded or not is anothe rmatter.

I also stopped my single person's discount on the council tax when he moved in and was told then we were living as a couple whether he contributed or not. This was 6 years ago though and it may have changed.

Pee

It would be a civil case. I don't see why your criminal case stopped him bringing a civil case, as they would be in respect of two different matters, one presumably assault and the other benficial ownership of a property or constructive trust.

There is no such thing as a common law husband or wive. there is talk of this changing, but it hasn't changed yet.

Sometimes the law will protect efforts one person has made with regard to a property. This is where one person is considered to be holding the property for them selves and another person. It doesn't sound to me as though your boyfriend has a claim, but as has been said, it's very complicated and turns on the facts of your circumstances. If in the course of a dinner party you have referred to it as "our" house, for instance, this could make a huge difference.

SandC

Have a look at this which might help. There is still a lot of thought that people are entitled to a % of a house just by virtue of living there, but remember that the onus is on them to prove a beneficial interest and not on you to prove otherwise.
http://mobile.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/families_and_relationships/relationship_breakdown/options_for_homeowners/beneficial_interest

There is no automatic entitlement to anything. For example, I bought my house 15 years ago. I do not need anyone else's assistance to pay the mortgage, the bills or anything else. If a bloke moved in with me I don't think there is a court in the country who would award him a share of my home.

Another example - an ex of mine was married for 4 years - he had been given his house by his mother so there was no mortgage on the property. When they got divorced they eventually agreed that he pay her a sum of money roughly equal to the equity she would have had if she had not sold the house she owned when they got together. See you don't even get half of everything if you were married.

margaretclare

I agree with SandC.

My DH moved in with me in 1997. The housing advisor at CAB told me that if I died he wouldn't even be classed as a tenant, would have no rights whatever. He'd be classed as a 'lodger', that was all.

Spendless

I bought a house on my own in 1994. I asked my solicitor at the time this question ie 'What if I meet a boyfriend who then moves in, if we split up does he then have any right to a share in the house?' The sol said that each case is judged on its own merits so there is no one answer.

For me my house went into negative equity pretty quickly and when a boyfriend did move in he quickly became my husband and then within a year I became a SAHM when we had our son and then my husband was the only breadwinner in the house, so it's not always as simple as 'that's mine, that's yours'.