Qualified Cohabitant property rights.

Digital Society

Hi

I'd like to know of anyone has experience with this situation.

I have been in a relationship for 12 years and have 2 young kids. We are not married. I bought the house only 2 months ago. My name is on the deeds and herself contributed 0 to deposit, bills, renovations etc. Nothing at all.

Is there anyway if we broke up I could be removed from the house? Would a judge in any case ask me to move out and let herself and the kids live there?

nuac

MOD
Leaving open for discussion subject to forum rule on legal advice

splinter65

Digital Society wrote: »

Hi

I'd like to know of anyone has experience with this situation.

I have been in a relationship for 12 years and have 2 young kids. We are not married. I bought the house only 2 months ago. My name is on the deeds and herself contributed 0 to deposit, bills, renovations etc. Nothing at all.

Is there anyway if we broke up I could be removed from the house? Would a judge in any case ask me to move out and let herself and the kids live there?

In the 12 years has she never been employed outside the home?

Digital Society

splinter65 wrote: »

In the 12 years has she never been employed outside the home?

She's employed now part time and keeps all the money to herself. Children's allowance and FIS pays for food. I pay all bills from my money.

Children are in school and creche during the day.

splinter65

Digital Society wrote: »

She's employed now part time and keeps all the money to herself. Children's allowance and FIS pays for food. I pay all bills from my money.

Children are in school and creche during the day.

If she could show that she financially contributed to the week to week running of the house then she could have a case.
The FIS is based on both of your wages.
Edited to add: what I mean is , the food shopping is considered a bill, her hours worked are a contributory factor in your eligibility for FIS, she will say she contributed to the household.
She has never used her wages to buy nappies children’s clothes shoes formula birthday/Christmas presents etc?

Really Interested

Digital Society wrote: »

Hi

I'd like to know of anyone has experience with this situation.

I have been in a relationship for 12 years and have 2 young kids. We are not married. I bought the house only 2 months ago. My name is on the deeds and herself contributed 0 to deposit, bills, renovations etc. Nothing at all.

Is there anyway if we broke up I could be removed from the house? Would a judge in any case ask me to move out and let herself and the kids live there?

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2010/act/24/section/202/enacted/en/html#sec202

See the above section also look at sections 171 to 207 of the Act, I assume ye are together and getting on well at the moment of so sit down and set out agreement and both get advice from solicitors.

Peregrinus

The short answer is that if your relationship were to break up, and if you didn't agree on financial and property issues, then a court could make pretty much the same range of orders that it could make if you were married. Whether they would make an order affected the house will depend on all the facts and circumstances - and not just the facts and circumstances as they are now, at the time of the purchase, but as they will be at some future point, when the (hypothetical) breakup occurs.

The fact that your partner has (so far) made no direct financial contribution will certainly be relevant. On the other hand, it may be that by providing childcare etc (esp. before the children went to school) and now working part-time so that she can still provide childcare, she has enable you to work full-time, and so to save for the deposit/finance the mortage payments, and so she may be seen as having contributed indirectly to the purchase of the house. Also, of course, if the house is the family home of your two children, and if, let's say, because of her limited earnings and part-time work she's not in a position to provide an alternative home, the question of who gets to occupy the house can't be decided in isolation from the question of who has custody of the children. It's at least theoretically possible that you would retain substantial or even total ownership of the house, but that she would get to live in it with the children.

The bottom line is that the powers of the courts in this situation are extremely wide. Whether and how those powers might be exercised, though, is not something you'll get a good handle on on an internet chat board on the basis of a thumbnail sketch of the situation provided by just one of the couple concerned. (It's possible that your partner would characterise matters differently, or would mention other facts that seem signficant to her, even if they do not to you.)

And, I agree with what Really Interested set. God forbid that your relationship does break down but, if it does, any financial/property settlement that you and she can agree is almost certainly going to suit both of you better, and cost a lot less in terms of fees, time and emotional energy to bring about, than what a court would rule. So the two of you should sit down now, while you're on good terms and have a chat about how you see this relationship, why it is you're not married, and what you think your obligations to one another and to the children are. And then you should think about going together to a solicitor to make a cohabitation agreement. Plus, if you haven't both made wills, you should do that. If you don't separate then one of you, some day, is going to die, and you need to plan for that.