Removing partner from house

[Gobkin89]

Just wondered if anyone knew the process of removing a partner from a property that is only in my name. They did contribute to the purchase but refused to put their name on the deeds.
To complicate matters they have horses at the property so they would have to go elsewhere as well but obviously I can’t just say take them now.
I will pay the money back they put in. I couldn’t do it immediately. I could pay a lump sum of about a quarter. The rest would either have to be paid monthly I would have to sort a mortgage but that would take time.

I suppose my questions are do they have any legal right to stay?
If they don’t how do I get her out? (I’m also a her) They won’t go easily
How do I manage the removal of the horses? What happens if she doesn’t take them and I’m left to look after something that’s not mine?

I do realise I will have to see a solicitor

Currently if she’s not on the deeds and has no tenancy agreement then she has no right to remain, and if she doesn’t comply with a request to vacate the property then you contact the police.

what evidence is there about her having contributed financially to the property? Be very careful about saying or agreeing to her having that money returned.

Just to confirm, there’s no marriage/civil partnership?

Surely they should have any money contributed returned, though?
That's just common decency.

No marriage or civil partnership.

The money went in at the point of purchase. Solicitor at the time advised to go on the deeds and own the property jointly. She point blank refused. She doesn’t have any of the paperwork and the purchase was only in my name.

I’m pretty sure the solicitor would have advised her at that point that she was gifting you this money, with no interest whatsoever on the asset.

Her motivation for that could be dodgy, could be purely foolish.

Then, sadly for her, she has no legal rights at all.

You can tell her to move out, take her horses with her and call the police to have her removed if she doesn't go. She doesn't have any options here. Whether you pay her back her financial contribution is entirely up to you. Morally it's obviously the right thing to do. Legally you don't have to. She's been very naive.

As a PP said, you can ask her to leave by a certain date and then just call the police if she doesn't. Or if you don't want to involve the police you can change the locks.

The horses are a different problem. You'll probably have to go through the courts to get her to take her horses away. If you start charging her rent for the horses field and stables then she might get a move on more quickly to find somewhere else. I'll be honest. If I had horses there - it would take a court order to get me to move them.

What do you mean the motivation could be dodgy?

I guess the motivation being dodgy could mean that she was looking to offload a cash lumpsum - for whatever reason - and the best place to put that was into your property. When I say a cash lumpsum I don't actually mean physical cash.

So where-ever that cash was before she put it into the house, she obviously didn't want it to be there.

Wait, why did you agree to her name not being on the deeds? What reason did she give you? Did she then say 'I will still want my money back if we split?'
Sorry, just don't understand how this transpired, why would she not want to protect herself.

It certainly sounds like she was trying to hide some cash

What about those solicitor adverts that say you can claim on a house you are not on the deeds to if you have contributed? Is it basically an expensive court case so people settle first?

No contribution to renovations and really not to bills
eother

the money came from her house sale
I was presuming that both names would go on deeds
I think it may have been so all the financial responsibility of the house was my responsibility

I've never seen an advert like that.

Is there any reason you won't just give her a months notice and then change the locks?

Or are you here more for a discussion on the possibilities of gaining a portion of property?

We were literally at the solicitors when it was announced going through the purchase. No mention of money being returned at that point. She will be not be wanting to leave without the money being returned

Then remortgage It won't take that long assuming you meet the affordability criteria. A few weeks maybe.

(Not a lawyer) You can't kick her out - she has a beneficial interest.

Does she have somewhere to go with the horses?

As Titchy said, she has a beneficial interest. You cannot simply kick her out, or just repay what she put in, she's entitled to 50% of the value as you clearly had an intention to purchase jointly, despite her name not going on the deeds.

Also, the solicitor undertaking the purchase would not have been able to independently advise her, so whatever they said, it's just further evidence she was not properly advised on her legal interests.

It’s not a way to hide money - there is a massive paper trail when gifting money for a house purchase,
including evidence of where it came from.
We had to jump through hoops to gift DD cash towards a house.
Just sounds very odd to not want to be on the deeds, if it’s not to retain status as a first time buyer then I can’t think what else it could be.