Can a partner claim part of my house if we never lived together?

RNZ News

6 days ago

RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds answers your questions.
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I recently separated and managed to buy the house and own it myself with a mortgage ... I have been seeing someone that I don't plan to live with. So my question is if you have a relationship with someone for a length of time that you don't live with or share bills with do I need to protect myself with a prenuptial agreement? When does the relationship need to have documentation of what I own and never want to share?
People normally think of relationship property issues arising when a couple lives together but you can sometimes be captured even if you're living apart.
Victoria University law professor Nicola Peart said this question came down to
whether a relationship would qualify as 'de facto'
.
She pointed to the Property Relationships Act, which sets out a definition of a de facto relationship.
But she said none of the criteria were essential to decide that someone was in such a relationships.
The act says that the things taken into account include the nature of the relationship, the extent of common residence, whether you have a sexual relationship, the amount of financial interdependence between the parties, the ownership and use of property, the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life, the performance of household duties and the public aspects of the relationship, as well as the care of children.
So it's possible you could tick off those factors while still maintaining separate homes.
"Not living in the same house or not sharing finances does not exclude the possibility that a de facto relationship exists. If in doubt,
contract out to preserve separate property
," Peart said.
My partner of 11yrs received his inheritance last September. Just wondering if I'm entitled to any of it ... we split up just five weeks ago due to an argument.
It sort of depends what he did with it when he received it.
If it went into a joint bank account you both contribute to and pay bills from, or into a mortgage on your family home, for example, then it's likely to have become relationship property and you would be entitled to a share of it.
But if he has kept it separate, you might not be.
This would be a good thing to talk to a lawyer about as you work through your separation agreements.
If property investors are making a loss, can't they still get something back on taxes? Through a rebate scheme? I thought I heard something about that.
It used to be the case that property investors who made a loss on their rental investments could offset that against their other sources of income, such as the salary and wages they received from their job.
That would reduce the tax they paid and sometimes meant they got a tax refund at the end of the year.
That ended when "residential loss ring fencing" rules were introduced in 2019.
"Broadly, these rules quarantine any losses from residential property so they can only be offset against profits from residential property, either carried forward to a future year or offset against other properties in a portfolio. There are some minor exceptions to these rules, for example for property which is or will be taxed on sale, and a property that is also a person's main home," said Robyn Walker, a tax partner at Deloitte.
What you might have heard about recently is the reintroduction of interest deductibility. From 2021, investors' ability to include interest payments in their calculation of property profits was phased out.
That's returned now, which will usually reduce their tax bills.
Walker said another thing you might be thinking of is the Investment Boost policy.
"This allows a 20 percent deduction for the cost of new assets which are used for business purposes on or after 22 May 2025. There are some restrictions on this as it does not apply to residential property or improvements to residential property. This restriction covers the building itself, it's possible that Investment Boost can apply to other assets which are included in a residential property but are not part of the property itself - separately identifiable chattels like a fridge. Again, any deductions available under the Investment Boost are also subject to the ring fencing rules."
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