Property Headache Remains For Cohabiting Couples
Cohabiting couples who separate may still face a complex legal wrangle over home ownership despite a recent Supreme Court ruling which sought to clarify the law, says Boys & Maughan, Thanet’s largest and oldest law firm.
Boys & Maughan, which earlier this year secured the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme status, has echoed the Law Society’s call for unmarried couples to seek legal advice to ensure that they arrange ownership of their property as they intend, after the supreme court ruled this month that a couple who had lived together before separating were not entitled to a 50/50 share of the property they had purchased in their joint names.
Peter Rodd, head of conveyancing at Boys & Maughan said: “The verdict goes to show why unmarried couples or cohabitants who live together should take the advice of a solicitor when they buy a property together. There is, as the Supreme Court has shown, no guarantee that the co-owners will have a 50/50 share of their home.
"There may need to be an explicit agreement as to how the property will be split should the couple separate otherwise there is a chance the courts will split the property unevenly.”
“CQS solicitors such as Boys & Maughan are highly experienced in dealing with house purchases and helping people set up their financial arrangements properly.
"Boys & Maughan will help to avoid unforeseen problems, about legal rights in a relationship generally, and can discuss how rights might change as a relationship develops, such as children or marriage.
“It might not be the most romantic gesture when moving in with your partner to seek legal advice, but the long term consequences of not doing so could leave you out of pocket, as one half of the couple discovered in the Supreme Court decision.”
In the case of Leonard Kernott and Patricia Jones, the Supreme Court found that Kernott’s share of a home would be limited to 10 per cent because although the couple had originally purchased the home in joint names and shared costs equally for eight years, when they separated Mr Kernott left the home. Ms Jones then continued to make the mortgage repayments for the next 14 years without any contribution from Mr Kernott.
Law Society President John Wotton said after the case that the decision only goes so far in providing cohabiting couples with clarity about what will happen to shared property on a relationship breakdown and that many cases could still end with what most people would consider an unfair outcome.
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Boys & Maughan Solicitors, 99 High Street, Broadstairs, Kent CT10 1NQ Tel: 01843 868861
Boys & Maughan Solicitors, 57 Queen Street, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 9EJ Tel: 01843 595990
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