Law for non married couples for property when they split up

zweety

Hello,

I'm going to live with my boyfriend, and we will either rent a flat or he buys a flat.

1/- He thinks that by law, when a couple live together for 2 years, they are both entitled to own 50 % of the propoerty whenthey split up.

i.e.: If my b/f buys a flat on his own, and we both live there for two years, I can ask for 50% of the value of the property if we break up.

I think it's odd, and as far as I know, that's only for married couples... Is it ??

2/- Just one more question, cos I'd like to know what people think about that: If he buys the house on his own, he wants me to pay him a rent (on top of the 50% of the bills and all common expenses obviously). Do you think that the rent thing is odd ? Or it's 100 % normal ? Just bear in mind that we live in London, if it makes things slightly different...

Thanks to all.

Melissa177

zweety wrote: »

Hello,

I'm going to live with my boyfriend, and we will either rent a flat or he buys a flat.

1/- He thinks that by law, when a couple live together for 2 years, they are both entitled to own 50 % of the propoerty whenthey split up.

i.e.: If my b/f buys a flat on his own, and we both live there for two years, I can ask for 50% of the value of the property if we break up.

I think it's odd, and as far as I know, that's only for married couples... Is it ??

2/- Just one more question, cos I'd like to know what people think about that: If he buys the house on his own, he wants me to pay him a rent (on top of the 50% of the bills and all common expenses obviously). Do you think that the rent thing is odd ? Or it's 100 % normal ? Just bear in mind that we live in London, if it makes things slightly different...

Thanks to all.

If your b/f buys a flat on his own, you don't have any entitlement to it when you break up. None at all. Ever. There was a case in the paper today about it, IIRC. I'll try and dig out a link.


If you b/f expects you to pay a rent on top of the bills, I would ask the question: are you a lodger or his girlfriend? It's like he wants you to contribute to the costs of the mortgage (which is what you would be doing), but doesn't want you to be any part of the purchase. Sounds like there is something wrong with the relationship from the start.


For reference, here is what two of my girlfriends have done, and who have both recently broken up with b/fs.

Case 1:Girl moves to b/fs flat. He owns it. She paid the bills and grocery bill - about 650 per month, while he paid the mortgage (not much more). They had a long term plan to get married an have kids.

One day he broke up with her out of the blue. She was left homeless overnight. She came to live with me at the time (thankfully my housemate was just about to move out of our rented houseshare). She demanded that her former boyfriend:
- pay the deposit on the rental property
- pay the first month's rent
- pay her a lump sum for all the money she had invested in the flat when she lived with her boyfriend - they had bought a lot of furniture and garden things together.

He paid her about six grand altogether, although she had no legal right to this as they were no married.

They have since got back together and are getting married soon! I had to move quickly, and thankfully got my !!!! in gear and bought my own flat, so all's well that ends well.


2. Case two, almost identical. Girl had been staying at B/Fs flat, paying bills and everything else, plus updates on the flat. B/F won't give her a penny. She hadn't done anything wrong, the break up was mutual I believe. She has asked for 2K as a pay-off for all the money she has invested in his property. Of course legally, she doesn't have a leg to stand on. She also has stayed with me (I'm running my Women's Refuge!!!!)



Have a think to yourself - do you want to end up like my two friends in a couple of years? And do you want to be your boyfriend's lodger or his girlfriend?

It sounds to me like your B/Fs heart isn't in this relationship if he isn't prepared to share his life with you. Because you are wondering about the rent thing being odd, I wonder if this hasn't crossed your mind as well.

Good luck with whatever you decide. If it goes pearshaped, you can come to my Women's Refuge!!!

Melissa177

PS. I'm 24, and my friends are 26 and 27, if that is of any consequence. All living in London.

airforce_beret

zweety, me(22) and my fiance(23) live together. I was talking about buying a house when we first got together, over 2 years ago. In the end I bought the house but we didn't go joint as we hadn't been together long enough. Due to this fact, it is my house and I don't ask for any money towards the mortgage from her as I don't believe this is far on her.

The majority of the bills are in my name and I pay for (mainly because I would be paying them if she didn't live in the house anyway..internet etc).

But...she pays for the food for the month and then we share the payment for anything luxury...eg. meals out, booze, nights out, cinema etc.

I pay for the majority of the stuff as I would of bought the house regardless of being with her (and my wage is 3 times hers). she helps as much as she can but we tend to use her expendable cash to treat ourselves as my money has settled the bills.

You both have to help out at the end of the day. We get married next March and due to my job might be moving to cyprus for a couple of years, where we'll share a house on a military base and I'll rent my house out. on own return we are going to buy together.

Even though it's my house...we class it as our home

I don't think you should be paying him rent, as he would have to pay his mortgage regardless of you being there. But you should both help out with other bills maybe...like food, telephone, internet (stuff you both use)

I know it's abit long winded but I hope this helps, as I'm basically in the position your BF is but I don't charge her hehe

airforce_beret

and I'm of the understanding that if your giving him money towards his mortgage and you could prove this then you would probably be entitled to some of the house. I have mates that have had to pay off long term girlfriends as after 6 months you are classed as common-law partners

benood

Regarding the rent issue I think your bf isn't completely unreasonable in asking for a contribution in the form of rent (if you were renting you'd both pay half surely?) - however, you need it to be fair - ie 50% of what the rent would have been - what do similar flats in the area rent for? I wouldn't automatically accept paying 50% of the mortgage payments - esp if it is a repayment mortgage - your name should be on the deeds too in that instance! Perhaps 50% of the interest element of the mortgage would be a fair proxy for 50% of rent - do your homework and see if you think it is.

Having said the above when I moved in with my GF (now wife) we rented initially and then bought together - we thought it was more fun to tackle these things as a couple, but we're all different.

As his gf you wouldn't be entitled to 50% of the place if you split up after 2 years or 20.

airforce_beret

buying together obviously comes later once you know that you can actually live together ha.

I don't think she should be paying too much rent as she is already covering her half of the bills. he's the one buying at the end of the day, if he wants her to go half then surely he should allow her name on the deeds too. Otherwise it seems abit all gain for him, as she'd be paying a good whack of his mortgage.

deary65

You my benefit from reading this in the daily mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=450638&in_page_id=1770

And if you would like to read this landmark judgment by the house of lords:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldjudgmt/jd070425/stack-1.htm

To some up the lords speeches, it seems that the law( in the absents of an agreement reduced to writing) must find a trust i.e a conscious agreement between you to share the property beneficially.

southernscouser

Melissa177 wrote: »

PS. I'm 24, and my friends are 26 and 27, if that is of any consequence. All living in London.

You all sound like you've been through it of late. How about I take you all out to cheer you up?

epz_2

all the points made have been fair but just to play devils advocate.

it would cost just as much if not more to rent a shared house and the other half is tieing themselfs in to 25 years worth of debt, that can seriously limit your flexability and given we are getting to the top of a housing bubble could result in some serious pain like negative equity which the unhindered half of the couple can just walk away from should they split.

CB1979_2

personally I think a fair deal would be that if you're paying 50% of the bills then you'd be entitled to 50% of any PROFIT on the place if it were sold.

obviously you'd have to take off his purchase cost & associated costs with the purchase, any bills HE pays for as an individual ie updating bathroom/kitchen/etc and then any costs associated with him selling it.

him charging you "rent" as weird as it sounds to me and others, you'd have to pay rent if you lived somewhere and wouldn't benefit from it from your landlord.

it surprises me the amount of people who come on here and ask the same question, come on people have a bit of faith in your relationship!