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Claiming share of house after split

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jon1968 | 21:45 Wed 26th Nov 2008 | Law
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Can anyone advise as to the best route to take for claiming a percentage of a shared property? Situation is thus: My sis owned a flat, her boyfriend owned a house, both sold up and bought a house together, sister not on the deeds of the new house (stupid cow) & have now split, what's the easiest way of her getting her share? FYI She put in c.�76K he put in c.�120K and she has moved out of the communal home (if that has any bearing?) Many thanks for any help.
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She needs legal advice.

Leading case is House of Lords Stack v Dowden. If she is not on the title and effectively is not shown as having a beneficial interest and if there is no Dec of Trust, she will need to prove it. However, the injection of �76k will be pretty good evidence of the parties' intentions that they should both take a share.

She will need to seek a declaration from the court as to her beneficial interest in the property on either a constructive or resulting trust basis (this will depend on the evidence) and then an order for sale to retrieve what the court says is her share. It's a difficult area and so she should take specialist advice pdq.
Impossible to say without a lot more information.

Was there a mortgage? How long did they live together? Did she contribute to the day to day running and overall maintenance?

Is there any equity in the property?
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Thank you Barmaid, basically it�s a relationship that�s gone wrong... she was loved up and now it�s gone wobbly!

What�s a �dec of trust�? I presume that�s declaration?

Basically they pooled their funds to buy a prop for �225K, with the added mortgage... who knows what it�s worth in the current climate! Just looking for the most expeditious way of getting her share?

Would any solicitor do or does she need a specialist?
I guessed as much. Unfortunately co habitation/trust disputes are the "new divorce". Sorry, I meant declaration of trust (I tend to forget not to talk "legal").

If you can find a solicitor specialising in trusts of land (ToLATA)/co habitation disputes so much the better. However a decent sized firm with a private client department should be able to provide someone to help. Some family lawyers are now developing into this area too.

To give you a basic idea of how it works is that as she is not on the title and there is no trust deed she has to prove that they intended to own the property either a) jointly as equal partners or b) jointly in the respective shares of their contributions. Unless the �76k was a gift (extremely unlikely), she should not have a problem doing this - b) is the most likely outcome.

As she has moved out, as part of her claim, she will also need to include a claim for occupational rent for "her" share of the property that he is living in.
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Thank you Barmaid, I could kiss you! (I hope you're a maid!)
I shall pass this on. I was hoping above hope that there would be a common sense way of working it out with basic maths and percentages and putting a claim in but apparently not. :-(
Apologies for the ambiguity in my post but I�ve been kept out of the loop myself.

Many thanks for your time once again.

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