legal rights on common law marriage

[blueeyes]

My brother lives in Pa and has lived with a girl for 17 years he wants out of the the relationship .They bought a house together and neither one wants to lose it .What is the legal thing to do? Now they never intended to get married they have seperate everything nothing but the deed to the house has both names on them. She says he has to give her so much to buy her out on the house I say no that in pa there is no law for common law marriage and he needs to get the house appraised and and if she wants the house she needs to pay him half of what the house is worth? can anyone help me with this? What is the legal rights he has?

[tigger22472]

Originally Posted by blueeyes

My brother lives in Pa and has lived with a girl for 17 years he wants out of the the relationship .They bought a house together and neither one wants to lose it .What is the legal thing to do? Now they never intended to get married they have seperate everything nothing but the deed to the house has both names on them. She says he has to give her so much to buy her out on the house I say no that in pa there is no law for common law marriage and he needs to get the house appraised and and if she wants the house she needs to pay him half of what the house is worth? can anyone help me with this? What is the legal rights he has?

Have they always kept everything separate in the last 17 years? That alone could disqualify them as common law marriage. PA DID have common law until late 2003 in which it was abolished, however, they honor those that were established prior to that.

Have they ever claimed or expressed themselves as husband and wife? Just living together does not qualify.

He should get the house appraised to see who should buy who out but that has nothing to do with common law marriage. If they have met the requirements they would be required to seek a divorce but regardless of that the house still would need to be taken care of if they plan to split.

[justalayman]

Pennsylvania: A common-law marriage may be established if a man and woman exchange words that indicate that they intend to be married at the present time.

It seems Pa has since effectively abolished common law marriage if it wasn't a marriage before sometime around late 2002 to early 2003

If there was no intent to present themselves as married, they are not married. Which is what they seem to have now.

Concerning the house. To seperate the house one of a couple of things will have to happen. Simply put one of the two will have to buy the other out.

How much one needs to pay the other seems to be the hard part.
Real basically, take the current value of the house (new appraisal needed), subtract the mortgage, split in 2. That is about what one would have to pay the other to have a fair split. If one or the other is willing to take less, then so be it.

If they can't come to an equitable decision, one or the other could file a suit for partition. So then one would have to pay half the equity and they could split the cost of the suit.

Or they could just sell the darn thing and split the cash.

[tigger22472]

Originally Posted by justalayman

It seems Pa has since effectively abolished common law marriage if it wasn't a marriage before sometime around late 2002 to early 2003

I looked it up to double check because I wasn't sure when it was.. I was thinking it was late 2003 but actually we were both wrong. There was a case involving common law in 2003 but they did not effectively abolish it until January 1, 2005. Anything formed after that doesn't not qualify but anything before could be valid, providing they meet the requirements which I am unsure is the case here.

[justalayman]

Originally Posted by tigger22472

I looked it up to double check because I wasn't sure when it was.. I was thinking it was late 2003 but actually we were both wrong. There was a case involving common law in 2003 but they did not effectively abolish it until January 1, 2005. Anything formed after that doesn't not qualify but anything before could be valid, providing they meet the requirements which I am unsure is the case here.

I kind of blew off the dates because the OP had stated there was no intent of marriage so it didn't really apply.

I read a quick clip about that case as well. The link I was at had said something about that was the case but it sounded like there was an appeal involved. Makes the timeline sensible.

Thanks for the date tigger

hey have you ever asked divgradcurl if you are infringing on a TM?

[tigger22472]

Originally Posted by justalayman

hey have you ever asked divgradcurl if you are infringing on a TM?

huh? It's been a VERY long weekend. I have been trying to write papers for school and don't seem to be getting very far in that venture.... I can't read half of what is here... Hell, on one case I read the lady had a 17 yr old and I told her to wait moving til the child was 18... the child was only 17 months old!

[justalayman]

Originally Posted by tigger22472

huh? It's been a VERY long weekend. I have been trying to write papers for school and don't seem to be getting very far in that venture.... I can't read half of what is here... Hell, on one case I read the lady had a 17 yr old and I told her to wait moving til the child was 18... the child was only 17 months old!

Just kidding ya about the Tigger thing.

You need to just turn this stuff off and do the real life thing.
Have a good night.