A landmark House of Lords ruling on the property rights of cohabiting couples will cause more litigation and has highlighted the need for reform, family law practitioners warned this week.


The Law Lords decided that the general rule would be to follow the legal ownership of the home. Unless the parties specified otherwise, where an unmarried couple bought their home in joint names, the court would start from the presumption that they owned it in equal shares.



Where a cohabiting couple bought a home in only one partner's name, the presumption would be that the other party would not be entitled to any share. A party who sought to establish entitlement to any or a greater share would have the burden of proving that.



The case concerned Barry Stack and his partner Dehra Dowden, who had lived together for 27 years and had four children. They owned their home in joint names, but the court divided the proceeds of the sale of their £750,000 home 35/65 in favour of Ms Stack because she had made a larger financial contribution and the court found that the couple had kept their financial arrangements unusually separate.



Baroness Hale said the presumption of equal ownership where the house was bought in joint names would apply unless the facts were 'very unusual'.



Joanne Edwards, a family law partner at London firm Manches, said: 'This decision will make fertile ground for litigation, despite the House of Lords saying they wanted to discourage this, because people will want to be the exception.'



David Allison, chairman of Resolution's cohabitation committee, said: 'Urgent reform to the law is needed to end the enormous vulnerability of all live-together couples.'



The Law Commission is currently reviewing the law on the rights of unmarried couples. It has provisionally recommended that couples who have been together for two years should have a right to apply for a share of a partner's money, property or pension.



Catherine Baksi