Cohabitees and common problems about property
When people cohabit and live together in a property there are a number of possible ways in which they can choose to own the property. For example, a man might own a property in his own name and then move his girlfriend in. They do not marry and the property remains in the man's name. They might have children together and live together for many years. The relationship then breaks down and the woman wants to know what her rights are.
"I have been in a relationship for 6 years and have lived with my partner for 6 years in a house owned by him before we met and still in his name. It is a four bed detached house. We have a little girl. I would like to stay in the house with our daughter. What I need to know is what are my chances of staying in the home."
The answer is that her chances of staying in the house on a long term basis are minimal. She certainly has no chance of having the house transferred into her sole name (as the courts might easily order if this were a divorce situation). The fact of the matter is that the house is the man's, they are unmarried and the courts do not have the power to alter property rights in this case. Unless the man agrees voluntarily to let them remain in the house he can recover possession of his property in due course and the woman will have no claim on the property at all.
The man in this case is certainly obliged to maintain his child by making maintenance payments but he is not obliged to pay any maintenance to the child's mother for her own benefit because they were not man and wife and nor does she have any claim on his capital.
Now when this situation arises there can occasionally be complications. For instance, although the legal title to a property may be vested in one person another person may have acquired a legal interest in that property as a result of contributing financially to its purchase. Say, for instance, in the above case the woman had paid £20,000 to have a new extension put on the house. That might have given her a proprietary interest in a proportion of the property and to that extent she would have become a joint owner. She would not be an equal joint owner under those circumstances but she might have acquired a proprietary interest in the property. The longer a relationship lasts the more likely it is that this sort of complication might arise.
However, it is important to understand that only significant contributions to the purchase or improvement of the property can have this effect. It is not good enough to say, "Well, I did the housekeeping for twenty years. Surely that entitles me to a share of the property?". No, it doesn't. What is required is a contribution in terms of money. This might arise by way of contribution to the mortgage but there has to be some such contribution in order to successfully raise a claim against the property.
In circumstances such as the the above if one looks at it from the man's perspective what he must do in order to make sure that his partner does not acquire any proprietary interest in the property is to make sure that the property is fully paid for by him and that he can prove it if necessary. He must not allow his partner to make direct contributions to the mortgage or to pay for significant improvements to the property. If he permits either of these things then he is putting his sole ownership of the house at risk.
Looked at from the point of view of the woman in the example given above she might want to establish some sort of right to the property either by formally becoming a joint owner of it or entering into a deed of trust which sets out her interest if any. Unless and until she does one of these things her interest in the property is non existent so long as she has not contributed financially to its purchase, it is in her partner's sole name and they are unmarried. It is, incidentally, worth mentioning that the same rules also apply to same sex relationships because by its nature such a relationship will be between two people who are not married.
