Scottish cohabitation,partner wants payout without entitlement

fuzz

Hi, I own the house we live in. We are unmarried and in separate bedrooms. The mortgage is solely in my name and he has been paying half for 5.5 years as well as half of small repairs and maintenance like gas boiler services etc. 
Our relationship has ended and he wants half of the equity (around 80k). I don't think he is entitled to anything?

Can anyone advise please?

la531983

Yes. Consult a solicitor.  This goes beyond any advice barrack room lawyers on here can offer. 

MobileSaver

fuzz said:

Hi, I own the house we live in. The mortgage is solely in my name and he has been paying half for 5.5 years as well as half of small repairs and maintenance like gas boiler services etc. 
Our relationship has ended and he wants half of the equity (around 80k). I don't think he is entitled to anything?

If it ended up in court the starting point would typically be that he is entitled to half of however much the property value has increased in the last 5.5 years.

So if back then the house was worth £180k but after him contributing half for 5.5 years it is now worth £220k then he would reasonably be entitled to claim half of the £40k uplift so £20k to him.

sheramber

By  paying half the mortgage he has established a beneficial interest in the property.

Keep_pedalling

You mistake was to have him pay half your mortgage which has given him a financial interest in your house. It won’t be 50% of the equity as he did not contribute to the deposit and presumable you have lived there longer than 5 and a half years. Take professional advice on what level of offer to make to him and avoid this ending up in court.

tightauldgit

sheramber said:

By  paying half the mortgage he has established a beneficial interest in the property.

It's worth noting that cohabitation laws in Scots law are different to English ones. I'm no expert but I think the approach to beneficial interest is different (I don't think it really exists in the same way in Scots law) . Best advice here is to get a solicitor I think.

Exodi

fuzz said:

Our relationship has ended and he wants half of the equity (around 80k). I don't think he is entitled to anything

I don't think either of you are being reasonable or acting in good faith.

I'd take advice from a solicitor as in England it has been known for people to claim a beneficial interest in the property, despite not being on the title deeds or mortgage. The test was whether they reasonably believed they were gaining a beneficial interest from their contributions to the property.

For this reason, many property owners prefer to have the cohabiter pay all of the utility bills or food (for example) and deliberately avoid them paying any house-related costs.

In your case it will be much more difficult to argue that it's unreasonable for the cohabitor to believe they were building equity in the property, as not only were they paying the mortgage, they were also contributing to property repairs and maintenance.

If the solicitor takes a similar view and things are similar in Scotland, I'd be open minded in reaching an agreement. Usually if something like this ends up in court, no-one wins (except the solicitors).

Unfortunately, you are both coming at it from totally opposite ends, which isn't a good start.

Keep_pedalling

Exodi said:

fuzz said:

Our relationship has ended and he wants half of the equity (around 80k). I don't think he is entitled to anything

For this reason, many property owners prefer to have the cohabiter pay all of the utility bills or food (for example) and deliberately avoid them paying any house-related costs.

That would be a poor option for the owner if they wanted to avoid their partner obtaining a beneficial interest as they would in effect still be contributing to the mortgage by paying way over their share of household expenses. No mortgage contribution and 50% of household expenses would be the sensible option.

Exodi

Keep_pedalling said:

Exodi said:

fuzz said:

Our relationship has ended and he wants half of the equity (around 80k). I don't think he is entitled to anything

For this reason, many property owners prefer to have the cohabiter pay all of the utility bills or food (for example) and deliberately avoid them paying any house-related costs.

That would be a poor option for the owner if they wanted to avoid their partner obtaining a beneficial interest as they would in effect still be contributing to the mortgage by paying way over their share of household expenses. No mortgage contribution and 50% of household expenses would be the sensible option.

Do you have any examples where someone has not paid towards direct housing costs (e.g. Mortgage/Renovation) but still gained a beneficial interest?

I'm happy to be proved wrong, but all of the past examples I'd seen were the other party paying half of the mortgage and believing they would gain equity, or examples where they were explicitly and provably told they would accrue equity.

TBagpuss

These solicitors say on their site:

"If you do not own the house but your ex partner owns it, then you have no right to claim on the house itself.  However, you can still seek to claim a capital sum from your ex partner, to take into account certain financial or other contributions you have made towards the property.  This could include things like if you have contributed towards the mortgage or any home improvements to the property during the time you lived there."

That would seem to suggest that he is likely to be entitled to something to reflect the money has has paid towards the mortgage during the time you've been together. Whether that would be a straight ump sum based on his payments, or a % of the equity  / increase in value of the house, I have no idea.

I suggest that you talk to a solicitor and then you can make an offer to try to resolve things .  They should also be able to advise you about whether you are entitled to tell him to leave - he may not (in the absence of an order) be entitled to continue to  stay in the house even if he might be entitled to get some money back from you. 

Gavin83

Keep_pedalling said:

Exodi said:

fuzz said:

Our relationship has ended and he wants half of the equity (around 80k). I don't think he is entitled to anything

For this reason, many property owners prefer to have the cohabiter pay all of the utility bills or food (for example) and deliberately avoid them paying any house-related costs.

That would be a poor option for the owner if they wanted to avoid their partner obtaining a beneficial interest as they would in effect still be contributing to the mortgage by paying way over their share of household expenses. No mortgage contribution and 50% of household expenses would be the sensible option.

This was my understanding as well. Probably a bit more of a complicated case but ultimately you could argue you paid other expenses in lieu of mortgage contributions. Morally (and possibly legally) it smacks of "having your cake and eating it" as well. You don't want the partner contributing to the mortgage to avoid building up a beneficial interest but still want the money via other methods. In an extreme example the non home owner could actually be contributing more to the house than the owner themselves. And no, I'm not willing to dig around for ages to find some case to back this up.

OP, I agree with the others, you need to speak to a solicitor about this. Not up on the Scottish rules but certainly in England he'd likely be entitled to something, just very unlikely to be £80k. It's worth getting an idea of his entitlement and then work out what offer you might wish to make to get him off your back.