Statement - There is no such thing as a common-law wife/husband

You cannot acquire any rights against your partner, even if you are sharing a home with them, purely because you are living together as husband and wife and sharing expenses. Unless you enter into the contract of marriage or there is a property contract or Trust, if your relationship breaks down you have no claims against your partner.

So

If Tom moves in with Angela into the flat that she owns subject to a mortgage, and lives with her for 3 years, pooling all resources and sharing all adventures they will be seen as an established couple. If they split up, however, Tom will have no claims against Angela or the value in the flat even though he may have been the higher salary earner and therefore technically made a greater contribution towards the household in those three years than Angela. Tom feels very aggrieved that Angela is now considerably better off in terms of her investment in the flat than she was when they met whereas he has gained nothing. He will be regarded purely as having paid the equivalent of board and lodging and will have no rights in the increased equity of the flat.

But

Let’s look at the couple David and Sue. David has owned his own house for some years. Sue moves in with him, she has a well paid job. in due course they have two children. Sue stops work to bring them up. Now, 25 years on the relationship breaks down. Both children are up and away and independent, Sue has not worked for 22 years and is now aged 51 years. Sue has no claim against the value of David’s house nor does she have any claim for maintenance from him. Because there are no dependent children David does not have to pay anything towards provision of Sue or a home for her in the future.

What would be fairer? 

If you are going to move in with your partner but it is anticipated that both parties will contribute towards the household then consider putting the property into joint names. The property can be held in unequal shares ring-fencing and securing a proportion of the investment that has been made by one party only. For example if Tom had sold his own home in order to move in with Angela but the equity in her flat was £100,000 and he had only cleared £50,000 from the sale of his previous home they could own the house they are going to share as Tenants in Common 2/3rds to her 1/3rd to him – do discuss this with your conveyance solicitor, it can be done very simply. Further, over the years if Tom had contributed considerably more than Angela then those shares could be adjusted quite easily to reflect that.  

Warning

If you are going to commit to your new home as a Joint economic venture, do not automatically go for the standard Joint Tenancy which means you will own it in equal shares. Do consider owning it as Tenants in Common in shares reflecting the contributions you are making to the purchase price.

If these or any other issues relating to family breakdown are problems for you please contact us on 01423 858582 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it