Hi mf1
Is there any good summary or guidelines on this issue?
Let's say
1) He buys a house
2) They get married
3) He, she and the young one live happily in the house for 2 years
4) They split up
Law or not, it will be very difficult for him to get the wife and child out of the house. If she is financially dependent on him, he will have presumably have to provide them with sufficient maintenance to cover accommodation. It would probably be a lot simpler for him to move out of the house.
Best place to start is the legislation -
Section 20 of the Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989 sets it out:
This is what a Court will do:
(2) As regards the exercise of the powers of the court under section 13 , 14 , 15 or 16 (a) or (b) of this Act in relation to a spouse, the court shall in particular have regard to the following matters—
(a) the income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources which each of the spouses has or is likely to have in the foreseeable future;
(b) the financial needs, obligations and responsibilities which each of the spouses has or is likely to have in the foreseeable future;
(c) the standard of living enjoyed by the family before proceedings were instituted or before the spouses separated, as the case may be;
(d) the age of each spouse, the duration of the marriage and the length of time the spouses lived together;
(e) any physical or mental disability of either spouse;
(f) the contributions which each of the spouses has made or is likely in the foreseeable future to make to the welfare of the family, including the contribution made by each spouse to the income, earning capacity, property and financial resources of the other and any contribution by looking after the home or caring for the family;
(g) the effect on the earning capacity of each spouse of the marital responsibilities assumed by each during the period when they lived together and, in particular, the degree to which the future earning capacity of a spouse is impaired by reason of having relinquished or foregone the opportunity of remunerative activity in order to look after the home or care for the family;
(h) any income or benefits to which either spouse is entitled by or under statute;
(i) the conduct of each of the spouses, if that conduct is such that in the opinion of the court it would in all the circumstances be repugnant to justice to disregard it;
(j) the accommodation needs of either spouse.
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For co-habitants see this extract from Citizens Information:
Property rights and the breakdown of a cohabiting relationship
Information
Rules
Contact
Information
If a cohabiting couple in Ireland splits up, the family home (and other family assets) will belong to the person who holds the legal title to the home/assets. This means that in the case of the family home, the person who originally bought the house and whose name is on the title deeds will usually own the house. Read about joint ownership of property and cohabiting couples here.
However, if your relationship breaks down and your name is not on the title deeds to the house, you may still be able to show that you have some ownership rights in relation to the house. These rights are based on the fact that you made a contribution to the purchase price of the house with the intention of gaining a share in the ownership of the house.
Contributions to the purchase price of the house can be direct or indirect. Direct contributions include contributions to the initial down payment for the house or contributions to the mortgage installments. Indirect contributions may include paying some of the other day-to-day household expenses or unpaid work in the legal owner of the house's business. It has been held by the courts that working in the home looking after children and money spent or work done on home improvements are not contributions that give you any right of ownership in relation to the house.
Rules
Usually, where you can show that you have made a contribution to the purchase price of the house, you will be entitled to a share in the house in proportion to your contribution. For example, if you have shown that you paid off half of a mortgage that represented 90% of the purchase price, you would be entitled to 45% of the ownership of the property.
As well as showing that you made a financial contribution to the purchase price of the house, you must also show that your contribution was made with the intention of gaining a share in the ownership of the house and that you were not making a gift of the money to the legal owner of the house.
Under the redress scheme for cohabiting couples a property adjustment order is one of the remedies available to the courts.
There's nothing like a full and frank exchange of views/expectations/understanding between parties before agreeing to tie the knot. It would save a lot of aggravation if parties understood the way the other was thinking - too often, I hear my clients saying "But I thought........" followed by "I get half of everything" followed by "I get the house".
Mind you, if people had that conversation, we might see the marriage rate plummeting!
mf