Cohabiting, Separation, Beneficial Interest

[Jiggins87]

Hi folks,

Does anyone have any experience in the above or can offer me any advice.

Met my ex partner in 2013 at school we were both single parents. Good friends initially. He had his own flat (owned) and I had mine (rented). We were engaged in 2014 and made plans to live together. He sold his flat in 2015 and he and his daughter moved in with me and my daughter. While living with me I paid all the bills and he contributed to food shopping, this was to enable him to save for the purchase of our home as I didn’t have any savings. This arrangement lasted 9 months until we moved into our “family home” in Feb 2016. The mortgage was in his name solely because I was clearing some debt and due to him earning almost double my wages we were able to get a better mortgage in his name only. I was always led to believe that after 3 years my name would go on the mortgage because my debt would be cleared... anyway...

2016 we move into a beautiful home, this home was chosen specifically because it was close to my daughter secondary school that she was due to start in September 2016 and it was close to a bus station for his daughter to access a route to her school. Bills were split 60% him and 40% me due to earnings. Each month I paid this into his bank account, all bills in his name. Naively I didn’t question this... I trusted him. My payment reference was “mortgage & bills”. On a couple of occasions he sent me a break down of the payments in a message.

During the 3 years living in the house I contributed to purchasing furniture, home improvements, paying for fitted wardrobes to be built etc. When we left my flat I sold/ gave away most of my belongings because we planned to purchase all new items.

Moving in with him is one of my biggest regrets in life... but I won’t go into these details. In March 2019 I had to make the decision to leave while I still had some sanity. I returned home from work with my sister and packed up what I could (clothing & toiletries) and left him. He made some attempts to lure me back to him but I stayed strong and politely declined. Once he got the message he went silent. For months I begged him for the rest of my belongings and heard nothing. Out of the blue in Jan 2020 he contacted my aunt to say he had a van booked for X date to return my property. I didn’t want to dispute this and was just happy to have some of my belongings back. The van arrived everything neatly packed and bubble wrapped and labelled... Sounds so kind but I found this very odd. Anyway...

Me and my daughter are still technically homeless, I’m living with a family friend so I can save to get us back on our feet so we can set up a home. I currently have some savings.

Is this something worth enquiring about with a solicitor? I feel that I can prove a beneficial interest in the property... it was purchased for £205,000 in 2016, it’s now worth £259,000- £317,000. I contributed £13,000 to the mortgage while living there.

I don’t want to waste the little savings I have but feel I have some rights....

There are others more qualified in this area of law than me but if you factor in legal costs at £300+vat an hour, the costs could pretty soon devastate any savings you have. As has been pointed out before "common law wives" have very little rights unless property is in joint names and of course had you been married it
Might have been you remaining in the property

It’s not just the mortgage though, it’s the capital improvements you also paid for. However, it might not be much of an addition and I agree with the PP that you might spend that in legal fees.

Similar happened to me, I paid all the mortgage and bills for 2 years, flat was in his name. He handled the finances and I didn't know the cost of the mortgage bills etc. 2 years in, I found a statement showing I paid everything and he put his cash into savings accounts. I got legal advice, I wasn't entitled to anything.

Gutted but I moved on, I always promised myself that life would find a way to pay me back that money. It did, I bought a house later and the value has risen steeply. I got my money back indirectly.

Just cut your losses and move on.

In Scotland you can make a section 28 cohabitation claim, but it must be done strictly within a year of separation.

Thank you all for your responses. What I don’t understand is when you search for information about this online there are laws such as The Married Women’s Property Act 1882 which also covers women that were engaged. Common Law marriage in the UK doesn’t exist so that isn’t the point I would be arguing.

How much did he put down towards a deposit and how much was it worth when you left (rather than now as prices have supposedly gone up quite a bit).

You need to work out what you'd be entitled taking the above into account. You can contact him and suggest a figure to pay you, he might agree in good conscience.

If he doesn't agree to anything, you need to work out what you'd be likely to get after solicitors fees. Very often it is nothing.

I believe he put down £40k towards the deposit and it was worth £270 when I left.

He’s not a reasonable person whatsoever, he’s a very clever and manipulative person. “I always win” he used to tell me.

I think like others suggested it’s probably not worth the hassle and cost. It just doesn’t seem fair that these individuals get away with what they do.

I would see if you can get a free appointment with a solicitor to see if it's worth perusing. I would be very hesitant about spending money on this unless they can give similar examples of where it has been successful. My friend was in a similar situation with a very high earner (over 300k), they have two children. She came away with maintenance and nothing more.

The maintenance isn't even fair as he manipulated his accounts and started a limited company showing earnings of 20k!

It sounds like he put the deposit down & purchased the property in his name only

You were not married

You were really his lodger

I would expect that you would not be entitled to anything

Suggest look on Citizens Advice or Gov.uk websites for advice about difference between single & married & living together

"Get away with what they do"

He made empty promises to you

Never rely on anyone else

@SummerL1ght207 would appear that you take some of my comments a little personally.

There have been lots of previous posts about single versus married status & also home ownership

No comments taken personally

I would suggest putting your time & energy into building a better new life, rather than looking back

Good luck

@SummerL1ght207 It’s very presumptuous of you to assume that I haven’t built a ‘better new life’. I spent some time one evening asking if people had any similar experience because a solicitor has indicated that I do have a beneficial interest.

You don’t have rights. Don’t waste your money

With no shared children and no evidence you improved the value of his property by helping to fund extensive improvement work (painting and decorating isn’t included in that category) which is where beneficial interest claims usually arise from, then I can’t see how you’d be entitled to anything. On what basis would you claim beneficial interest? You didn’t invest money in the original purchase and £13,000 over three years is likely less than you’d have been paying in rent elsewhere for the same period, so it isn’t as if you invested heavily in his property and lost out, you just paid your “rent” to him rather than a private landlord.

If you jointly bought furniture which you left behind then it’s feasible you could make a small claim for some of the value of that - though it’s debatable what value of four-year-old furniture should be awarded to you.

Most solicitors give 30 mins free advice, you could try that. I feel it would be hard as you’ve left the property and some time has now passed.

Beneficial interest is based on an agreement that you would have a share of the property in exchange for payment or other consideration (eg work). Is there anything that could show there was an intention for you to have a share? Certainly no harm in taking advice.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Good point, however the law isn’t as explicit to state that it only includes “extensive improvements”. I may not have given financially in respect of a lump sum towards, however he and his daughter lived with me for 9 months rent and bill free in order for him to save money to put towards the ‘upgrades’ in the property which have increased the value of the property. It’s about the agreement/ understanding I had to my detriment.

No case here I'm afraid. Not married, no children together, not a particularly long relationship - 7 years? You lived in his house and contributed to the bills and making the house nice. Move on and chalk it up to experience. I say that as someone who has seen people go through similar. Court costs were thousands, the stress horrific and they lost anyway.

@CayrolBaaaskin My name is on the mortgage offer as a occupier of the property. The agreement was always that I would go on the mortgage when we re-mortgaged. He gave me breakdowns detailing what I paid which was 40% of the mortgage and all bills.

I feel like people are making really good points that are causing me to doubt the advice given by 2 solicitors.

I have been told that it won’t be an easy case but we could initially try for a settlement and if not the threat of 40% or the equity at the value of the property when I left.

I hope I'm not speaking out of turn but please be careful you aren't doing this to get revenge on him. Seems a bit nasty wanting 40% of his place, thus forcing him to sell possibly, especially as you only had 9 months at your place and around 2 and a half years at his.

Honestly, if you’re still technically homeless and sofa surfing with friends, I think what little savings you have is best out towards finding yourself and your DD some permanent housing. Beneficial interest based on what’s called a “constructive trust” as you’re claiming (that there was an agreed intent for you to at some point become a co-owner and benefit from the property’s increase in value) is relatively difficult to prove and honestly in a financial sense this situation doesn’t actually appear to have been to your detriment - why not see it as being able to live in his house and pay what sounds like a very reasonable contribution towards the running of the house enabled you to pay off the debts you had when you met and moved in together?

If you lived there 3 years

How much would you expect to receive back ?

Curious