How to ensure I keep my house after divorce?

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

I'm buying a house all by myself :-) very soon. I also have a lovely fiancé who I'm marrying next June.

Because I've got kids, and my fiancé isn't contributing any money to the house purchase, we've agreed that I will keep/own the house in my sole name.

If we get divorced, will he automatically have a right to a share if it? If so, is there anything I can do to ensure he doesn't? Any kind of legal paperwork?

Thank you!

prh47bridge Please can you explain this bit of your post: "If you want them to be able to continue living in the house as adults and inherit the house when you die you should not marry. You should also be very careful about cohabiting"

How do I have to be careful about cohabiting? Thanks :)

Say I had a lodger, who rented space in my house for 25 years and paid me £500/month rent. If I threw them out, they wouldn't be entitled to their rent back, would they? So why does a partner become entitled to their "rent" (aka contributions to the household fund that I may or may not use towards the mortgage) back?

Can I just charge him rent? And get a rent book and everything?

I'd have liked us to buy a place together, but it was too complicated with his finances, so we didn't. He still has a mortgage in his name on the house his ex and their kids live in. This would've pushed our mortgage interest rate WAY up. He needs to sort all that out before we can buy together.

Plus I liked the independence of getting MY own place. Now I feel like it's not safely mine even if we never get married.

I'd feel the same way! I think it's a shame that you can't protect pre-marital assets under British law. Here we have iron-clad pre-nups and I think they are a good thing! My aunt remarried after my uncle died. Both she and her new DH were (ahem) 'very well placed indeed'. Their pre-nup bound their individual assets & possessions each to their own in case of divorce and to their respective children with life-tenancy in each other's homes (aunt's house in town, his house in the mountains) in case of death. When he died, it was very simple and completely spelled out in legal terms.

I'm really surprised that pre-nups aren't enforceable in the UK.

If you cohabit he is not a lodger so different rules apply. He may become entitled to a slice of the property if, for example, he makes contributions towards paying off the mortgage. It is possible to ensure that he doesn't acquire an interest in the property but you need to take legal advice.

You are a lot safer cohabiting than marrying though. Many many men and women risk a live in lover but not a spouse. It is always wise to rent rather than buy, as they say.
As prh says you can ensure a live in lover gains no interest in the property. I think if they p ay towards things like food but not the mortgage, he does not pay for home improvements etc etc then there is less risk. My ex husband asked my daughters and me (my daughters and I are lawyers) for a cohabitation agreement a few months ago which I supplied him. I am not sure if he signed it. My ex has almost £1m including a house which he got on the divorce and he obviously wants to keep his hands on it and hers off it - he does not have a mortgage but still wanted (wisely) a written agreement with her. As it is possibly my children's inheritance from him it is in their interests too that he does not have to hand anything over to her. The agreement covers all kinds of things and it might be wise if people moving a boyfriend in have something similar in writing signed by both sides.

OP - how old are your DCs? Because quite frankly, I don't think you should consider marrying your DP until your youngest is 18, as you aren't prepared to merge your finances with him, it's best to wait until you are in an equal position.

You can't have a situation where what's his is yours, and what's yours is yours. Wait until neither of you have dependents, so you are just taking a personal risk, not a risk with your DCs future.

OP - why do you want to get married? Can your reasons be satisfied by doing something other than getting married? E.g. changing your name by deed poll.

If you can find an alternative I would strongly advise doing so rather than risking the security of you and your children.