It's ours not mine - or is it?

Well if they were living somewhere else then he wouldn’t have been paying for renovations either 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m sure they knew it would be theirs in the end if he’s paying to do the house up! I feel like OP hasn’t given us enough context though because we don’t know if they discussed it etc

You're not married. How come?

Seeing as you're not married - no way would I put his name on the deeds.
No f*ing way.

If I was with my long term life partner I would share the house with them 50/50 irrespective of how much they'd put in, but if it was me I would have also chosen to get married.

If the house is in her name she can charge her partner rent to cover repairs etc there is no reason why they should live rent free just because the house in in OPs name

If they had been able to get a mortgage they would have bought a jointly owned house and the gift of this house would have gone to the OP alone.

If it's the OP's poor credit rating which prevented them from getting a mortgage and the OP keeps the house in their name only then the partner has spent years contributing to something they will not benefit from whilst OP is set for life. That doesn't sound like much of a partnership.

If the partners poor credit rating prevented them from getting a mortgage then I think it's less clear cut and would depend on the stability of the relationship and the partners approach to finances now.

Presumably rent will no longer be payable so both parties should be able to save money.

You have been gifted it, it’s yours. The fact you were living there is not relevant, you would both have been paying rent somewhere and wouldn’t expect a chunk of the landlords house would you. And yes I’d say that regardless of the sex of the op in this case.

Im going to unpopularly disagree. I dont think the bad financial decision maker matters anymore

Since then they have both contributed equally.

Surely the question is incredibly simple? Who does your family member want to gift the house to?

If your family member wishes to gift the house to both of you then I would suggest asking them if they are sure that they'd rather not gift it to you alone.

if you opt to keep the house in your name only then I would prepare for it to be the ruination of the relationship to be honest.

and you need to state which one of you is the bad financial decision maker to be honest…

Sorry, I have ignorantly assumed gender. My post still stands regardless

Not necessarily. It depends on the circumstances. But I know if I gifted my son or my daughter a house I would want the house in their name.
Besides we have no idea if the OP is male or female.

Not nearly enough info.

Who made the crap financial decisions which kept you in rented for years?
Are there kids involved or kids planned?
Do you plan to marry?
Is it a good, stable, supportive relationship or is your partner a bit of a nob?
How will they react if it stays in your name only?

Apologies, I could have swore I read a reference to ‘he’ in the OP, but perhaps it was in subsequent posts. Regardless of the sex of the partner, my post still stands.

If it’s yours then you need you need to pay the rent/mortgage on your own from now on.

Unless you knew that you’d get this gift years ago, morally I think that your partner only has a claim on half of the home improvements made until the house was yours. As with the rent/mortgage, from now on you need to fund home improvements 100% on your own if the house is yours.

Same for me.

Tricky one.

It depends really, personally if I was renting for say 10 years with my partner and we were equally paying towards the rent and bills and he was gifted the house and said “it’s all mine” I’d reconsider the relationship.

You say you’ve been renting for years and nearly paid off 50% of what the place is valued at so I believe you’ve been in this renting arrangement for 10 + years unless I’m wrong.

If you've both contributed towards the rent and done it up . Both monies have been used. Therefore it would be our home and not solely yours. Id be livid if you kept it as only you, as its unfair and would be a deal breaker for me.

No they don't deserve a thing. The house was gifted by a relative to the OP not to the oP and partner. It really is very simple.

I think there are lots of sensible reasons to leave it in your name, but if your realtionship is to thrive it should be 50/50.

You say it's being gifted because of the rent you've paid and the work you've done, which has been shared, and I think it creates an impossible imbalance if things are so uneven in a realtionship. For example if you alone own the house, does that mean you alone are responsible for the maintenence. How would you like that? Would you want to be in that position if things were reversed?

My only caveat might be the issue of the financial responsibility. If that was him and is still an issue, ring fence the asset.

Personally if all rent bills expenses and work have been 50/50 I would put his name on the deeds. He has equally contributed.

Only thing with that is if things go wrong in your relationship he gets half. I eould be ok with that but its if you would be

The fact you've paid rent is irrelevant, you'd have been doing that anyway. Whether you're married is.

Presuming you're just cohabiting, I would say it should go in your name. It's a gift from a family member.

Now if you were to get married, you could make a different decision (possibly with help of prenup) as to whether it should be included/excluded as a pre-marital asset.

But that's a conversation to be had, as it would also hinge on other assets you have and whether there are children involved.

But don't be too quick to hand over rights to essentially an early inheritance. You're partner might not do the same if things were reversed, and you have no formal safeguards outside marriage.

1. Are you married (definitely don’t put it in his name if not)
2. When you were doing the works to it, was it on the expectation that you knew you would one day own the property or simply for enjoyment whilst renting?

If it was for enjoyment at the time, then I think it’s two totally different things separate things. Firstly you rented and made it nice to live in. That money is gone, a bit like the rent money is gone. And now it becomes your house alone as a gift from your relative.
Alternatively, if you expected payback in future for the investment made, then you can pay him back for his share of the investment.

It’s common for long term renters to invest to make a nice home, but at the end of the tenancy, they just have to walk away.

Either way, it’s not 50/50, especially if you aren’t married.

Exactly. The OP's partner is entitled to 50% of that house. Not by law sadly as they don't appear to be married. But the OP should do the decent thing and let them have 50%/put them on the deeds.

We don't know much more yet, as the OP has only posted once, and hasn't come back to the thread yet. So I'm not posting on here again, until the OP has come back and posted again.

They’ve chosen to hang around for years in this position. If they wanted the certainty, they either needed to insist or move on. They have no rights in this scenario.

Yes but theoretically with the amount of rent they have paid they have essentially paid for the house to this family member. So then he is singing it over to OP in her husbands head he’s paid a substantial amount of that rent so surely he should have a % of the property. Legally no but morally that’s what should be done. Imagine if it was you and you paid all that money for your husband to say nope