Mum's boyfriend kicking her out of their home after 24 years

[heathspeedwell]

Just found out that my mum's partner has sold their house and is kicking her out. She doesn't know yet.

They aren't married but she invested £25k into their first home, which they bought for £125k. Her name has never been on the deeds.

They have moved house four times and their current home is worth maybe £800k. She's done loads of DIY and they have also had lodgers that she has done the work for. She paid £30k for the kitchen last year.

My mum's boyfriend's son (whom I have thought of as a stepbrother) has said that his dad plans to give my mum back the £25k from their first house. We are both shocked that his dad is being so mean.

Although they are not married I can't believe that he can get away with just giving her the £25k. If she can prove she bought the kitchen does that give her any rights at all?

Hoping that someone can give me advice on what my mum should do. Is it better if she stays in the house until they reach a fair settlement or is she better to get away as soon as possible?

There was another thread not long ago with a similar story of a woman who had kicked her long term boyfriend out of the house she had bought and paid for. Very similar situation. I will see if I can find it. I think legal advice is the most common advice in these threads but there might be more advice if someone can track it down.

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll speak to her tomorrow obviously, but my (erstwhile) brother and I agreed we should give her partner a chance to tell her tonight. It certainly sounds like her partner has been planning this behind her back for some time. Apparently he thought he was being generous when he said that of course he would return the £25k.

She has been incredibly naive & foolish, and that’s putting it as politely as possible. As others have said, she needs proper legal advice ASAP.

She wasn't silly to have not got married if she didn't want to, of course no-one has to get married if they chose not to but she should have made sure the house was in joint names if they bought it together. Who has paid the mortgage?

Your poor mum but she has been very naive. At the very least when putting up 25 grand for a deposit she should have insisted on being on the house deeds.
This is often what happens to people who declare that they don't need to get married, its just a piece of paper.
It isn't, it's legally binding document
Get your mum to a solicitor ASAP xx

Im not married. I own the majority of the house. Its all there on the legal paperwork how this house is owned and what would happen if we split up and who owes who what

I also dont want to be married and I dont need to be. The marriage thing that gets thrown up here all the time is a red herring. She had every opportunity to take control of her finances and how to secure proof of where they went and work out the ownership, she didnt need to be married to do that

But as others have said, she has been living without cause to pay mortgage or rent for 24 years so there is a balance there about what she has paid in

If she hasn't been paying mortgage, what has she done with the money she's saved? What's their financial setup?

Does she earn very little? Is she bad with money?

Pretty certain he can't sell the house with vacant possession without her signing something .....unless he's forged her signature.

Exactly.

Op here is some guidance from shelter, effectively she’s only allowed to live there as long as he says she can and he has to give her reasonable notice,

she has financially contributed, but generally a court will look at things that significantly improved the value of the property. An extension for example, im not sure a new kitchen will cover it. That’s up to a judge if he thinks it’s significantly impacted the value of the house enough that she’s a financial interest. She also will need to pay for a solicitor and likely a barrister and go to court.

it’s right she sees a lawyer but I strongly suspect he just needs to give her reasonable time in his eviction , the fact he’s offering her the 25k back when she’s lived rent free for 24 years is in his favour.

england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/relationship_breakdown/housing_rights_of_cohabiting_sole_homeowners/occupation_rights_if_one_partner_is_the_sole_owner

Sounds like the boyfriend had some good advice from a lawyer already. He's going to return the only proven sum to her.

I would say if you do see a lawyer, take care not to throw a lot of money at it. 25k could be swallowed by a greedy solicitor easily to argue for a constructive trust and your mother with various receipts and bills to be haggled over.

It could cost as much as divorce but with far more complexity and less to gain.

I don't know that their financial agreement has been but I do know that she's a generous person and she inherited some money. She certainly is hard working and careful with money.

Sadly he has an argument to support that as she’s been living rent free for 24 years. Arguably he likely doesn’t need to.

Where she can demonstrate that she has invested in the property, and added to its value through DIY then she can make a claim. But she needs to act very quickly and see a solicitor asap. I assume she has proof of paying for DIY and her bank statements will go back six years if she didn't keep receipts.

If she is over 55 she may qualify for social housing / supported accomodation perhaps. Maybe not though if she has 25K

Ok then she should have enough to buy her own place? Why did she elect not to contribute or have her name in the deeds then? Was she being tight?

england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/relationship_breakdown/housing_rights_of_cohabiting_joint_homeowners/establishing_joint_legal_owner_interest_for_cohabiting_couples

Im presuming you're going to tell her. She needs legal advice ASAP obviously.She needs to access all of the paperwork. Also take photos of it all in case it disappears.

@bellac11 it's a extremely hard pill for her to swallow. It doesn't make sense that you would want to live with someone for 24 years and not pay the mortgage but your willing to spend money on the deposit and decor.

It's no wonder he can just turf her out like it's nothing. She was in a very vulnerable position. 24 years is a bloody long time!

If she paid absolutely nothing towards the mortgage she must have saved loads of money in rent over the years. Sounds bad op.

OP : you may want to google "TLATA" (or "tolata" claims. It's an acronym for a law which deals with this.

In very short, no facts, summary : in some circumstances people in situations like your mother's can have some success. So, don't write it off without finding out but it's all about facts, appetite for litigation and the vagaries of how that can turn out.

She must stay in the house. I know when my parents sold the family home and I still lived there and was over 18 I had to sign a legal document to say I was leaving the property. I knew my parents were moving so wasn’t a problem

She mustn't leave the house. She also needs to register an immediate restriction at Land Registry to stop him completing on the sale until her interest in it has been agreed/determined.
There are 2 levels of property ownership in England/Wales (which I am assuming is the relevant jurisdiction). Legal - who owns it on the paperwork - and beneficial - who really owns it.
So this is a claim to a beneficial interest.
The claims are that there is either a resulting or constructive trust (the latter being the most common) or a claim under proprietary estoppel. All require an agreement or common intention and a direct contribution, and she must have acted to her detriment in reliance on the agreement/promises/understanding.
She will need to go back to when she made those payments and set out her recollection as to what was said.
Non financial contributions are not going to get her an interest (but might be evidence of agreements/promises/common intention and may be deemed to be acts in reliance and to her detriment.)
Contributions to household bills are meaningless.
Her right to register a restriction to stop the sale proceeding without her consent hangs on her argument that she has a beneficial interest.
She could agree that the sale goes ahead if there are compelling reasons to do so and she has somewhere else to live, but only if say 50% of the proceeds remain in the solicitors bank account, plus an immediate partial distribution to her if she needs money.

She needs to make a clear list of what direct contributions she has made, to what, when and how much. And to have a think how she will find evidence to prove them. Also a list of what she has done to her detriment in relying on an express agreement or an implied agreement based on assumed common intention. This will make it easier for the solicitor to give clearer advice.
These claims and the evidence underpinning them are quite subtle so she is likely to be taken to see a barrister at an early stage. She ought to budget for this - around £2-3,000 in the provinces.
The solicitor will write a letter before claim and there may then be a bit of haggling. I'd get on and issue proceedings if he is being very unreasonable (not linking her £25k to subsequent increases in value, followed through the different sales/purchases being unreasonable)

So it might not be the disaster you're worried about - she might have feathered her own nest very well while paying no mortgage/rent. Fingers crossed.

This.

It's shit for your mum, but she has been naive to just blindly trust him.