I've been living with my boyfriend since Oct 2010. He owns the house we live in (deed is in his name only) and I've been

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Good afternoon – sorry to hear about your situation. Did you sign a cohabitation agreement with him at any point?

When it comes to common-law, generally speaking, each party retains its own property and there is no automatic entitlement to the assets belonging to the other party. That said, given that you contributed towards the mortgage and renovation costs of the home, you could make what’s called an “unjust enrichment claim” against him for a share in the value of the property which you contributed to. Ideally, he will just agree to split the property with you or something very close to that. These are somewhat difficult claims to make and a lawyer would be recommended. Here is a link for the Ontario lawyer referral service to help you find a lawyer: https://lsrs.lso.ca/lsrs/welcome

Generally, each party would retain the property that’s in their name. Assuming he wants to keep the van for himself, you would stop making payments on it and he would take over.

As he put some money in your vehicle, you could agree to pay him some amount to “even it out”.

Does that help answer your question today or did you have any follow up questions?

A cohabitation agreement is a good idea as it provides a clear guideline for both parties as to how property will be divided and whether any spousal support claims can be made (and under what terms). This will reduce the chances of a dispute and having to retain lawyers at great expense.

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