Property rights In breakdown of cohabiting couple

Ms P

Hi
I would like some advice on my rights as a cohabiting partner in relation to a house. I am going to try and keep this brief...
-Title Deeds are in other persons sole name
-Mortgage is in other persons sole name
-Living together in a committed relationship for 5 years but living in the property in question for a year and 2 months
-I provided the deposit for the property to be bought, have paid half the mortgage, half the household bills, contributed equally financially to the improvement of the house along with the other person and I have a paper trail for all of this

Q. What are my entitlements to this property as I have an interest financially in this property as it was bought as a home together? This property is worth more now than when we bought it

Q. Also can the other person serve me with an eviction notice to remove me from the house? The situation is currently in the hands of solicitors. Since the break up I have continued living in the house for a month and a half now and will continue to until a financial agreement has been reached

Q. What can this person legally do to remove me and my belongings from the house? Just to clarify I am not a tenant

The_Conductor

Guys- if anyone has any insights that they'd be happy to offer/share with the OP- it would be appreciated.

Please note- legal advice and/or legal discussion *is not permissable*.

Paleblood

It's possible that through your contributions to the purchase price and mortgage you have developed and equitable interest in the property, meaning that you can 'claim' an interest in the property proportionate to what you put into it.

This is a complicated area of law. Speak to a solicitor asap.

The_Conductor

I'm echoing Paleblood on this- you need to sit down with a good solicitor, and get good independent advice- do not use the same solicitor as your ex.

davo10

Sounds like to loaned money to your ex partner to buy the house but ultimately it belongs to him, you benefitted from living in the property while paying your ex each month (my guess is that the money was paid from your account into your exs rather than from your account directly to bank).

Op you will need solid legal advice to establish if you have an equitable interest in it, but it looks like your ex will owe you any money lent to him to purchase the property, but it's hard to see how you would have any claim on the property itself. Assuming you don't have kids together, you are a licensee (guest) in the house rather than a tenant, so yes, you can be asked to leave at any time.

Peregrinus

^ ^ What Paleblood and The Conductor said. This is not a time for faffing around on an internet forum.

ash23

From my own experience, there was a joint mortgage, no kids and we'd been living together for a number of years. His parents gave us the deposit.
Solicitor advised that we both own the house 50/50, both have equal rights to live there and one can take the other to court to force a sale if the other is not agreeing to a sale.

We were both also equally liable for the mortgage.

Options were to rent it out, sell it, both stay living there or one move out.
We were in negative equity so decided not to sell.
I moved out and my rent was added to the mortgage cost, divided by two and our monthly cost figured out that way. That figure was more or less what my rent was so since then I've been paying rent and my ex has been paying the mortgage. We rent out rooms also.

I'd advise going to see a solicitor though as my own experience was a number of years ago so there may be more current info that wasn't applicable at the time.

davo10

ash23 wrote: »

From my own experience, there was a joint mortgage, no kids and we'd been living together for a number of years. His parents gave us the deposit.
Solicitor advised that we both own the house 50/50, both have equal rights to live there and one can take the other to court to force a sale if the other is not agreeing to a sale.

We were both also equally liable for the mortgage.

Options were to rent it out, sell it, both stay living there or one move out.
We were in negative equity so decided not to sell.
I moved out and my rent was added to the mortgage cost, divided by two and our monthly cost figured out that way. That figure was more or less what my rent was so since then I've been paying rent and my ex has been paying the mortgage. We rent out rooms also.

I'd advise going to see a solicitor though as my own experience was a number of years ago so there may be more current info that wasn't applicable at the time.

The standout point here is that it was a joint mortgage, its more clear cut than the ops case where only her ex partner is the mortgage holder.

Ms P

davo10 wrote: »

Sounds like to loaned money to your ex partner to buy the house but ultimately it belongs to him, you benefitted from living in the property while paying your ex each month (my guess is that the money was paid from your account into your exs rather than from your account directly to bank).

Op you will need solid legal advice to establish if you have an equitable interest in it, but it looks like your ex will owe you any money lent to him to purchase the property, but it's hard to see how you would have any claim on the property itself. Assuming you don't have kids together, you are a licensee (guest) in the house rather than a tenant, so yes, you can be asked to leave at any time.

And if you are asked to leave at any time does that mean you have to go?

CIARAN_BOYLE

First off I can't understand why someone would fork out a deposit and not get their name on the property.

It's not specifically property but its worth determining whether you are a qualifying cohabiting for the purpose of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/problems_in_marriages_and_other_relationships/redress_scheme_for_cohabiting_couples.html

Other than that I would be sure to listen to your legal advice.

myshirt

Short answer, yes, there are remedies, including a purchase money resulting trust. Some grossly incorrect advice on here already, so go to a solicitor. Spend 500 or so to get them to assess the situation and give you a quote then. It will be money well spent.

Ms P

myshirt wrote: »

Short answer, yes, there are remedies, including a purchase money resulting trust. Some grossly incorrect advice on here already, so go to a solicitor. Spend 500 or so to get them to assess the situation and give you a quote then. It will be money well spent.

Can you please clarify what you mean to short answer is yes?

Cushie Butterfield

Ms P wrote:

The situation is currently in the hands of solicitors.

Presumably you have asked your solicitor for answers to your questions. What did they say?

myshirt

Ms P wrote: »

Can you please clarify what you mean to short answer is yes?

Yes there are remedies available to resolve the issues.

Likely result may be to sell the property if they can't come to an agreement. Costs could go 5-15k, who knows, but the op won't lose their shirt (or blouse). Ultimate point is get legal advice. That isn't a cop out as often is the reason for the reply 'get legal advice' on internet forums, the op does need advice here

C3PO

I'm in a very similar position to ash23 (but with one child) and the advice I have received is similar to hers. But as mentioned before, the fact that the OP is not "on" the mortgage makes their case quite different. Seek legal advice as soon as you can!

davo10

myshirt wrote: »

Yes there are remedies available to resolve the issues.

Likely result may be to sell the property if they can't come to an agreement. Costs could go 5-15k, who knows, but the op won't lose their shirt (or blouse). Ultimate point is get legal advice. That isn't a cop out as often is the reason for the reply 'get legal advice' on internet forums, the op does need advice here

That's interesting, are you saying the courts could force the sale of the property (a link to a case would be great) in a case like this, or are you saying that the partner could be forced to sell the property to raise equity to repay loan? Are you also saying that the op is entitled to profit from the rise in value on an asset which she does not own? Again a link to a case would be great. I'm not a lawyer obviously but I'd sure find your correct advice interesting, as I'm sure any cohabiting couples in this situation would.

GingerLily

Did the banks not ask where your money came from? Did you sign a gift letter?

The_Conductor

Ok guys- a few too many people are sailing too close to the wind in seeking and offering legal advice (and/or precedents) here.

OP- you *need* to get proper legal advice, whatever it costs you.

Thread closed.