Legal rights to equity of the house

[Hayley27]

I am in the process of buying a 3 bedroom property. The deposit will come from the equity of my current property. The current mortgage is solely in my name, and when I buy my next property it will also be solely in my name.
I have been talking with my boyfriend about him moving in, at some point in the future. I would not be adding his name to the mortgage.
My parents have raised concerns that should he move in and then we eventually split up, he will have a legal claim to the house, or to a share of the equity of the house.
Could somebody please explain what legal rights he would have, should this happen? This is obviously not something that I want to happen! I just would like some legal advice from those who are better informed than my parents!

[james_law]

firstly its different in Scotland but in England couples like yourself who are not married are not able to make a claim against the other person just because they have lived in your house. There are exceptions to this which mainly centre around if there was an agreement to share.

If you were to split up and he hadn't paid any significant payments for renovations/building or towards the mortgage then he would have no legal rights to claim anything from you. The best way to fully safeguard any possible problems arising would be to have an agreement between yourself and your boyfriend ideally written down. But as long as he does not make payment towards the mortgage or any building work there is no need for an agreement.

[Peridot]

Hi Hayley27,

Just to clarify the position. The law of property is quite strict in England & Wales. The mistaken belief that people become common law man and wife after a period of time has not helped couples understanding of how it works, either.

If you own a property in your sole name with or without a mortgage against it, just because someone moves in and you share the bills does not mean they then automatically get a right to a share of the property.

James-law is sort of correct when he talks about building works but even then just funding a project does not give someone the right to a share of the property either. If it can be shown that a type of trust had been created then it could be argued that it is right for the Court to award a share. The sorts of cases that the Courts have heard are varied but many have focused on couples with children where one stay home to look after them while the other works. A famous case which awarded the individual a share involved huge building works to the property where the individual had done the works themselves, not just helped fund them. Painting and decorating would not be sufficient to make it equitable for the individual to be awarded a share of the property, but building an extension by hand may be considered. There would also have to have been some indication by the owner that the other person would get a share

There has to be an indication from the owner that the other could expect to get a share of the property and they rely on that expectation to their detriment. It is a complicated area but no reason not to let your boyfriend move in with you. It would also be perfectly reasonable to expect a contribution to their share of the bills. I wouldn't stipulate they contribute to the mortgage and avoid them paying the mortgage directly as this could be used at a later point to demonstrate an alleged intention that they would receive a share.

Don't let it panic you as long as you don't make any promises or allow him to make huge changes to the property himself or pay all the bills himself it will be fine. If further down the line the relationship gets to a point you anticipate it being longer term you can always think about entering into a Deed with him giving him a share going forward, but you can always ring fence your part of the ownership at that point giving you a greater share. But that is immaterial at the moment you have a way to go before considering that.

Don't make any promises early on. Just because he offers to help or agrees to pay does not give him property rights. After all if he didn't move in with you he'd be paying rent somewhere else! If you want to keep your mum and dad off your back you could have a rental agreement between you? This link may help get to grips with the types: https://www.gov.uk/private-renting-tenancy-agreements but I appreciate it can be difficult suggesting that to your boyfriend.

Don't worry and make no promises at this stage.