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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    18

    Question How to Recover House Payments or Get a Share of a House After a Break-Up

    My question involves a relationship in the state of: North Carolina

    The following is a question that I am asking on behalf of a friend.

    She met and started dating a man in 2006, she owns her own business and at the time did not qualify to be on the mortgage of a house that he purchased in October of 2006. She has been living with him since and soon after moving in with him, started running her business from home. He became unemployed and she began paying the entire mortgage and all bills. She has proof of this in her past bank statements.

    The relationship has gone down hill and even after getting a job, he still isn't paying the mortgage or any other bills, other than his own gas / insurance, etc. He knows that she will continue to pay everything since she runs her business from home and will end up losing clients if she has to move again.

    She wants to know if she could either leave him and get all of the money that she has put into the house, or buy the house from him. Does she have any rights?

    Also, the man has contacted an attorney to prepare for anything that she may do.

    They are engaged right now.

    Would it make a difference if she waited until after they were married?

    Any input would be helpful. Thank you,

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: How Can She Get the House or Her Money Back

    Huh? She wants to leave someone and she's wondering if she should get married first?
    I assume she is neither on the deed or the mortgage.
    Her best bet is to walk away from this whole mess. She's really got zero claim on the house and little chance of getting the money she paid back. It's essentially rent.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: How Can She Get the House or Her Money Back

    It would probably not make any difference. The property would predate the marital estate and she wouldn't just get a claim on it with a sham marriage that ended shortly thereafter (unless she could wrangle him into putting the house in their combined names in the name of being marriage).

    As I stated, she's got no likely claim for any of the contributions she's made during this period. She paid for house she got to reside in and get business use out of. It's not going to be considered some sort of investment.

  4. #4

    Default Re: How Can She Get the House or Her Money Back

    She absolutely has rights; including the right to either marry someone before cohabitating and putting in her own money, or, the right to execute a lease before putting her life and business on the shoulders of someone to whom she has no legal lies. The problem when living AS IF married (ie pooling money or paying each other's expenses) is that doing so without the legal protections of marriage means that those choosing to do so is ALSO a chooce to bypass the potential benefits provided by the divorce process, such as dividing up assets and liabilities. She's paying to live there. That makes her a tenant. She's chosen to enter that tenancy without either the legal umbrella of marriage, or the benefit of a lease outlining amounts, responsibilities, etc. It's an unfortunate lesson that WAY too many people don't learn until AFTER the fact.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    18

    Default Re: How Can She Get the House or Her Money Back

    Also, she has been paying the mortgage company directly from her bank account, which is is not on. Would that make a difference.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: How Can She Get the House or Her Money Back

    It makes no difference.

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