Law And The Home

[Jackietwirl]

If a couple have been living together in a house under 7 years and are not married, the man has put the deposit down paid all the bills and she only paid for food. Is she intitled to half the house?

[New Judge]

I forgot to add, retro, that your understanding of the difference between "joint tenants" and "tenants-in-common" is incorrect.

A property owned by joint tenants is owned entirely by the couple. It is not owned 50:50. Signing up for a mortgage under joint tenancy arrangements does not distribute the property in equal shares to the two partners, it provides for ownership by the couple as a single entity. For a similarity consider assets owned by a company: They are not owned in equal shares by the directors or managers (or indeed any other individuals) but are owned by the company as a discreet entity. If directors or managers leave the assets remain in the possession of the company.

This has important ramifications in particular in the event of the death of one of the partners or, as in this case, the dissolution of the partnership (hence the reason for its inclusion in my "cut and paste"). To illustrate this, if one of them dies intestate and the property is owned as a joint tenancy then the entire property reverts to the surviving partner (as the surviving member of the "partnership" that owns the property). The rules of intestacy do not apply to that part of the deceased's estate. Partners who own a property as tenants-in-common, however, each own a discreet proportion of the property (usually 50:50). If one of them dies intestate the rules of intestacy apply to the deceased's portion of the value of the property (i.e. it is added to the total value of his/her estate). This means that if the survivor is not in the pecking order under the rules of intestacy (as unmarried partners are not) he or she will only own 50% of the property and the deceased's 50% will be distributed under the intestacy rules. The survivor will either have to sell his 50% and move out or raise 50% of the value to give to the beneficiaries in order to to remain.