Unmarried Cohabitants

Title to Real Estate: Unmarried Cohabitants

There are circumstances where unmarried persons purchase homes together. In most of those cases, the couples take title as joint tenants, which means that upon the death of one of them, title is automatically vested by operation of law in the survivor. On the other hand, if the unmarried couples take title as tenants in common, it is almost always on a 50-50 basis.

The problems arise when the relationship ends. The question that we are often asked is: Are there common law rights for unmarried cohabitants?