How can a cohabitee establish a beneficial interest in property?

Cohabitees

For partners who live together but are not married or in a civil partnership, what beneficial interest (if any) that each party has fallen to be determined on the basis of trusts and real property law.

Common intention constructive trust

Where B did not contribute to the purchase price of the property, and where there is no express trust providing that B owns a particular share of the beneficial interest in the property, B can prove that they have a beneficial interest in the property by establishing the existence of a ‘common intention constructive trust’.

A common intention constructive trust exists where the following conditions are all satisfied:

1. •

   A and B have a common intention that B should have a beneficial interest in the property

2. •

   B has acted in reliance on that common intention, and

3. •

   B has suffered detriment by acting in reliance on that intention

See