Unmarried and separating — where do you stand on the home?
There is no such thing as common-law marriage, so unmarried couples who separate do not have the same financial claims as divorcing spouses. Where you stand on the home you shared usually depends on property law — whose name is on the title, what you each contributed, and what was agreed or understood. This checker helps you see your likely position.
How it works
Tell the checker how the home is owned — in one name or both — and what each of you put in, financially and otherwise, and whether anything was ever written down or promised. It points to whether you may have a claim to a share, and how it would be worked out.
For unmarried couples, the relevant law is mainly the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, known as TOLATA. If the home is in both names, the starting point is usually that you share it, though that can be displaced. If it is in one name, the other may still have a ‘beneficial interest’ — a share earned through contributions or a common intention to share — but that has to be established, and it is harder to do.
Where there are children, Schedule 1 of the Children Act can provide for their housing and support separately from any property claim. And a cohabitation agreement or a declaration of trust, made at any point, can put the position beyond doubt and save a great deal of difficulty later.
These claims are fact-sensitive, and the evidence — who paid what, and what was said — matters a great deal. Treat the result as a starting point and take advice before you move out or sign anything.
Questions about Unmarried and separating — where do you stand on the home?
You cannot claim maintenance for yourself, but where there are children you may be able to claim child maintenance and, under Schedule 1 of the Children Act, provision such as housing for them while they are young.
Cohabiting couples cannot make the financial claims — maintenance, pension sharing, a share of each other's assets — that are available on divorce. Their position is governed by property law instead.
There can be limitation issues depending on exactly what is claimed, and practical problems grow the longer you leave it — for example if the property is sold or remortgaged — so it is best not to delay.
You would need to show a beneficial interest — for example through direct financial contributions, or a shared intention that you would both own it that you then relied on. It can be done, but it has to be proved.
If you are joint legal owners, equity usually follows the legal title unless there is evidence of a different agreement or intention, so the starting point is often, though not always, an equal division.
We can tell you where you are likely to stand and the most sensible way forward, often without court. We charge by the hour with a written estimate at the outset, and the first conversation is free.
Recording who owns what share, who pays what, and what happens if you separate removes most of the uncertainty that otherwise leads to a dispute. It can be put in place at any time.
Under TOLATA the court can decide who has a share in a property, the size of that share, and whether and when it should be sold — which is the usual framework for disputes between separating cohabitants.
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