My partner wants to split up and says we are going to sell the house. We are cohabitating and he gave me £60,000 to pay off my mortgage four years ago. I have a 15 year old daughter living at home, do I have to sell the house as I dont want to. There was only £40,000 left on the mortgage when he gave me the money and the house is worth £180,000.

Hello

Welcome to Wiki

I have copied and pasted a reply I have given before on co-hab seperation, I hope you find it of some use.


I know from my own experience that splitting up with a long term partner is traumatic and emotional,and is a legal minefield, as the rights of co-habitees are almost non-existent in the UK.

Without any further details, it is difficult to answer your question fully. Prehaps you could let us know if you have children together, who paid the mortgage, whether you are in Scotland, England or Wales, etc.

I have given some basic information below (applies to England):-


As far as the house is concerned - On the face of it, you own the home in the shares that were specified when you bought the property. If you did not specify unequal shares, the law will treat you as owning it 50:50.
If a 50:50 split is not fair because of what you have both contributed, you can either negotiate a deal or take the issue to court. You would usually have to show that you had an agreement, whether written or simply understood, that you did not have equal shares and that you had
contributed unequally along the lines of this agreement. To get the jointly-owned house into your sole name,you wouldn need to "buy out" your partner. If there are children a court can order a transfer of the tenancy to a parent on behalf of the children under the Children Act 1989. This would typically happen to keep the children housed.
In practice this does not mean that you get a larger share of the home, but you may get the right to remain in it while it is the home for the children - until they reach 18 or leave full time education.
You can only sell the home if both owners agree to it. This often causes problems if one of you wants to stay in the house and can’t offer a fair price to buy the other’s
share. You can take the issue to court, but this is time consuming, costly, and stressful.

As for a finacial settlement - when couples that were living together break up neither partner is en­­title­­d to any maintenance from the other, and the court can’t order a transfer of savings or property that were owned by one of you (if it was always treated that way and the other one did not contribute towards it). However, if you both thought that such a transfer would be fair, you could make a voluntary agreement.

When you come to any sort of agreement between yourselves it is useful to write it down, including specifics like the amount and dates of any agreed payments, in case there is any dispute later on. If you have agreed to transfer property from one person to another you should consult a solicitor.
If you are unable to come to an agreement about financial issues you could take the matter to court, but this is likely to be a very drawn out and expensive business. You should only consider this as a last resort. You may want to consider using a mediation service to help you arrive at a fair settlement instead.

I hope this helps, and Im sorry its not going to be straightfoward for you - the rights of co-habitees needs a good shake up in the UK!

If you feel like a moan, orjust wantsome company, pop into the chatroom - you will be made very welcome.


Take Care

ruby

Thanks Ruby

Your info was very useful, I suspected I would have to pay him out in order to keep the house.
In the current economy its going to be very difficult i know, but I am not planning on selling up yet.
We do not have any children together, I paid the mortgage until he gave me the money to pay the last £40,000 off. We live in England and I agree the law is not very clear in these circumstances.
Thank you for your advice anyway.

Louise

Hi Ruby - can you help? We live in London, together 10 yrs but married for 7 with 2 kids 7yrs (b) and 4yrs (g)
My stbx had an affair a year ago and we're tried to pull it together (I thought we had) but has just announced she wants a divorce. Grounds for divorce are unclear, currently it's bcause she wants to be single ans as the affair was over 6 months ago we may have a problem-ette but that's not my question.
She wants to leave and make me sell the house and she wants to keep the kids even if she has to move away. I've told her I could buy her out and would be able to meet the mortgage payments and I'd like the kids to live with me during school time or some other negotiated settlement. This way they stay in the same school and close to their friends.I don't want to be kicked out of my own home and become a weekend Dad because she's decided t live a different life. I'm unclear of my legal situation...if I buy her out and take on all he payments can I court tell me that if I can afford that then I should just pay it to her as a maintenance payment so she can stay?
What a pa-lava!