if i buy a house and my girlfriend lives with me & pays half the mort.if we split is she entitled to anything?

Answer 1

palimony...
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-palimony.htm

Answer 2

First, is her name on the mortgage? Or even the Deed/Title? Second, how does she contribute to the mortgage: does she pay with a check, or does she give you the money? If she pays by check then she can prove that she has contributed to the payments. Also, depending on the state that you live in, there is something called "common law" If you have resided together long enough she may be able to establish a commonlaw claim, in which she will be entitled to something. Best advice is NEVER buy anything with anyone unless you are married. Second, you may want to consult with an attorney as most of them consult for free, it will give you an idea of what you are looking at as far as a legal battle. Good Luck.

Answer 3

No - not unless she has a contract with you and/or if her name is on the mortgage deed.

In all cases like this it is best to get a contract agreed at the start. For example, assuming she is not on the deeds, you might agree (in writing, but nothing fancy) that since she is paying half the money, if you sell the house and she is still with you and is still paying half the mortgage, she would be entitled to half the profit on the property (or loss!).

If she moves out and/or stops paying before you sell the house then she forfeits the right to a share in the profit.

Something like that would be smart. I did something similar once and it worked really well.

Answer 4

You're certainly setting yourself up for an expensive lawsuit.

What you want to do is have her pay you directly, and you pay the entire mortgage payment with your own check.

Put the agreement between the two of you in writing. This is very flexible. You can make it straight rent with nothing else, or you can give her something like "$100 per month of rent paid, payable when the house sells, not to exceed 50% of the net proceeds", or you can say that "upon marriage, landlord will deliver a quitclaim deed to landlord and tenant".

It may not be easy to work this out now, but think of how hard its going to be when you add two lawyers and a judge to the decision process.

Answer 5

It depends upon the laws of your state. If you are sharing sleeping arrangements for more than 6 months you could be thought of as common law married, thus she could be entitled to half of any assests purchased during that period. If the house was yours going in to the relationship and she moved in it would be considered that she was paying here share of rent. If she did not live with you then she would have to pay rent anyway, but if you are deemed common law married then all assests aquired during the time you were together are possible for her to sue for half of. I doubt any attorney would take this one though the amount is too small and if this is the only divideable asset and she did not participate in any down payment or equity money of any kind then it was rent and a small claims judge will throw it out.

Answer 6

If you are not in a common law marriage state like New Jersey, then you can set it up where you and she pay rent to the corporation that owns the house. (You being the owner of the corporation or LLC)

That way she can't claim she is paying 1/2 the mortgage, she is just a renter. 1 thing though, make sure what she pays is fair market value for rent, you may have to kick in more outside of the rental situation to cover the deficit if need be for the corporation.

Answer 7

No, she wouldn't be. But if I were you, I'd get that put in writing clearly.

She is not on title now, she has no ownership rights, but you put it in a way that makes me question it. She pays half the mortgage. Not "she pays me rent".

"She pays me rent about equal to half the mortgage" sounds better. Like you have a written lease with her. That'd be good to CYA.

But again, she has no ownership interest in the home. She'd have to sue you to get any profits from the sale of that home, if and when you do sell it. I doubt that would happen, but if it were me, I'd just draft a simple lease so everyone is clear.

Answer 8

you purchased the domicile with a private loan which you acquire from a lender, secured via a loan on your place. you are the owner. era. If nameless wrote a examine and paid off your person loan, you're nevertheless the owner. She, on the different hand, is in a international of harm. She ought to declare that paying "0.5 the loan" became into some type of hire, in substitute for being allowed to stay there; she might have the burden of proving such an contract ever existed. you need to declare that she became into freely staying there as a "centred visitor", making any "help" with the loan an irrevocable present in substitute on your "love and affection", for which she gained no tangible value. basically because of the fact someone will pay you and happens to stay with you won't cause them to a "tenant".

Answer 9

It will all depend on how long you live together and what the mortgage deeds say.

Its nice that you are going into this so positively BTW.

You can do two things to protect yourself - either get the mortgage in both your names, then you will have to split it between you with no arguments. Or have her sign a tenancy contract (you can get them in W H Smith) which makes her your tenant and that should negate any claim she would have on your property.

Answer 10

It would be possible to write a dissertation on this question, in fact I expect it's been done. She should be entitled to something, she may be able to prove she is, if she has any sense she will insist on her name being put on the mortgage as well to clarify the situation. If she doesn't insist on this I wouldn't move in with her because she is clearly an idiot and you will be fed up with her in no time.

Answer 11

My friend has just gone through something similar, here in the UK, and his solicitor did indeed tell him to get an agreement signed beforehand. As others have said if she can prove she was contributing to the mortgage, she can prove she was contributing to your investment. She would at the very least be able to claim her part of any value increase of your house.

At the end of the day, they didn't sign an agreement. Just because it was only in his name, she will be contributing - why shouldn't she get anything back if it all goes horribly wrong.