What Happens to a House When an Unmarried Couple Splits and Only One Partner Owns It?

Take the following scenario where Annie owns a property in her sole name. 

She is in a relationship with Ben. After some time, Ben moves into Annie’s home and contributes to the mortgage and other bills.

The couple never discussed Ben acquiring an interest, but they see the property as their home.

Later, Ben contributed to renovations in the property, such as paying towards a new kitchen.

However, some years later, the relationship between the parties breaks down, and Ben moves out of the house.

Understandably, Ben feels that he has an interest in the property as he has contributed to the mortgage, bills, and small renovations, but in law, does this constitute an interest?

Does Ben have any interest in the property?

In cases where the property is registered in one party’s sole name, the starting point is that the beneficial interest is owned by that party alone. In this case, it is Annie.

Therefore, the burden will be on Ben to prove that Annie does not hold 100% of the beneficial interest in the property.

However, to determine whether Ben has an interest, the court requires Ben to prove the following:

1. There was a common understanding with Annie that he should have an interest in the property.  And if so, in what shares?
2. Ben has relied on that common understanding to his detriment.

The most important aspect of this stage is that there must be evidence of an agreement or common intention to share the beneficial interest.

This evidence can be inferred from the parties’ conduct or dealings. 

So, what evidence would Ben need to prove there was a common intention? 

Here, Ben would need to prove that either there was an oral agreement between the parties that he should have an interest in the property or that there was a mutual understanding that arose as a result of the parties’ actions that he should have an interest in the property.

In the scenario above, it is clear that there was no discussion between the parties that Ben should have an interest in the property. What is clear is that the couple saw the property as their home. 

It may be possible to impute through Ben’s conduct that he did have an interest. We know that Ben paid towards the mortgage and also carried out improvements to the property. Further evidence would need to be gathered to prove his interest.

If Ben can provide this evidence and it can be established that he does have an interest in the property, then it will be necessary to determine his share.