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Unmarried couples warned over property rights

Many unmarried couples are buying a property together mistakenly believing that if the relationship breaks down they will be entitled to the same financial settlement as a married couple, a local family law specialist has warned.

“As the law currently stands unmarried couples do not share the same rights as married couples in the event that their relationship breaks down, even if it has lasted several years and the couple has children,” explains Helen Saggers of Barr Ellison Solicitors. “If the couple was married then a divorce court does have discretion to look at the contributions the parties made to the marriage and what each brought into the marriage. Even in cases where the home is purchased in one party’s name or was owned pre-marriage, once it becomes the marital home the non-owning spouse automatically acquires an interest in the property.”

This issue has come to light this month as the decision of a Supreme Court case that could affect the rights of unmarried couples is awaited. In the case of Jones and Kernott, Ms Jones is appealing against a Court of Appeal case that overturned an original judgement giving her 90 per cent of a property the couple bought together. The Court of Appeal reduced this to an equal share. They had been separated for 13 years before Mr Kernott asked for his share of the property, during which time Ms Jones paid the mortgage, maintained the property and supported two children without any financial input from Mr. Kernott.

If the Supreme Court reinstates the original order that decision will have a significant impact in this area of the law, says Helen.  “Up until now if the parties bought a house in joint names in equal shares and there was no evidence of any intention to change the terms of ownership post purchase the Court had no option but to follow the terms of the original purchase. This has lead to very unfair outcomes in particular where one party during the course of the relationship may have made a substantial contribution to the property or paid off the mortgage.”

So what should unmarried couples do before buying? “It is essential that if unmarried couples are buying a house together then they must think about what shares each of them are to have in the property. If one of them is putting down a large deposit and the other nothing if they hold the property in joint names in equal shares and the relationship were to break down that contribution may not necessarily be recouped.  If they are aware of this and plan ahead then they won’t receive the stark wakeup call I have seen with clients when they find out that, despite years of living together and bringing up children, they may be left walking away from the relationship with very little except a bitter taste in their mouth.”

Helen can be contacted on 01223 417200

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