I own a house with the mortgage in my name and all utilities in my name. The 20 deposit came from my own funds. I moved in with a girlfrien...

Question

I own a house with the mortgage in my name and all utilities in my name. The 20% deposit came from my own funds. I moved in with a girlfriend who paid $400 per month towards the mortgage. Although we bought the house together, she had no money to contribute towards anything, hence why everything was in my name. She contributed $400 per month towards the mortgage. We have since broke up and she's demanding I pay her back her monthly mortgage contributions. She believes she invested in the property just as I did. However, since the real estate crash, the propery is worth significantly less than what the purchase price was.

Is she legally entitled to getting any money back?

Answer

This is an interesting question, and I would strongly recommend that you retain local counsel in the event that she follows through on her demands. There are several different ways of looking at this dispute.

She will want to claim that she has some equitable interest in the home roughly equal to her contributions toward the property. You may argue that her $400.00 represented rental payments to you, the owner. In that case, she received the benefit of a place to live in exchange for her rental payments, and she may not get them back. I think in the end, the law will favor your argument, especially in the absence of an agreement to the contrary.

This is why it is essential that folks sit down with their attorney before entering into a purchase like this. It is not terribly difficult to enter into a property ownership or domestic partnership agreement. In fact, it is much less expensive to sit down with an attorney and fix the terms of ownership while the parties are all on the same page than it is to litigate these matters when the relationship has broken down.

I wish you the best of luck. Do not hesitate to contact our office if you would like to retain counsel.