Co-habitees in my house.

[mitzycat]

I am seperated but my husband and I own a house as joint tenants which he lives in.  If he was to move a woman into the house to live with him and he was to die would I as the then owner of the house have problems getting her out.  We are not divorcing due to our varied business interests.  I obviously would like to know if she would have to move from the house back to her own as she does have a property that is in her name.

[Mrs_Pegasus]

Technically, if you were still married and there was no will then all his assets would automatically transfer to you - I think!

But she may argue that on paper you were still married but if she can prove they were living as man and wife for X amount of years then she may challenge.

If there is a will and he leaves his share of the house then you would probably have to force a sale which can be expensive and sometimes impossible if there is a dependant involved i.e. a school aged child living in the house.

Dont forget he could also leave his business interests to her as well and not only would she be living in a part owned house but also in your part owned business interests.

Persoanlly, due to the complexity of the situation I would try and sort something out sooner rather than later and with good sound legal advice.

[Didwot]

If your husband dies, then you do not automatically become entitled to the whole of the house. Because you are "Joint Tenants" his share of the house will pass under the terms of his will, or if he has not made one then under the intestacy rules. You will be the sole legal owner of the house, but you would have to appoint someone (as co-trustee) to act with you to sell it. If the other woman would not move out you would first have to get a court order to evict her. If your husband had left his share of the house to her this would not be entirely easy. If you set out your ownership rights in a deed at the time of purchase then this may define when the house should and should not be sold. Eventually the Court might have to decide what should happen, and it would try to give effect to the original intentions of yourself and your husband when you bought the house, which was probably as a home for you and he, and not for yoiu and the other woman. If you think this is a situation which may develop it would seem sensible to discuss it with your hsuband first.

[josieann]

My understanding of joint tenancy is if one of the joint owner dies then the other half passes to the other joint owner you cant leave it in a will unless of course he changes it to a tenancy in common but you would have to receive notification of this. Not sure where you stand with getting her to move. 

[Didwot]

Whoops. Big boo boo on my part. Joint Tenants do automatically get the whole when the other dies. I was thinking of Tenants in Common. Will now stand in Dunce's corner for next hour.