Court Awards Man Half of Home After 31-Year Unmarried Relationship

A retired Israeli Ministry of Education employee has been awarded 50% ownership of a home he shared with his former partner for 31 years, after their relationship ended. The couple lived together as common-law partners from 1992 to 2023, without marrying and maintaining separate finances. They purchased a home in Ashkelon in 2000, which was initially registered in both their names. In 2007, they sold that property and bought a new house for NIS 840,000, using the proceeds from the sale and a mortgage. This second house was registered solely in the woman's name.

Following their separation in 2023, the man claimed he was entitled to half the house, arguing that the registration solely in the woman's name was based on a trust, as he was told there were temporary reasons preventing his name from being added. He presented evidence that he solely paid off the mortgage on the house from November 2011 until its full repayment in June 2020. He stated he agreed to the sole registration based on legal advice and trust in his partner.

The woman, a retired psychotherapist, countered that she funded most of the purchase and that the sole registration was a correction for a previous property that had been registered in his name under pressure. She argued the man's mortgage payments were akin to reduced rent for living in the house, in exchange for household services.

The court, however, sided with the man. The judge noted that the couple's declaration to the National Insurance Institute, where their grandchildren referred to each other as grandparents, indicated a shared life. The judge also found the man's consistent mortgage payments, which increased equity, inconsistent with him not having ownership. Crucially, mutual wills signed in 2012, stipulating that the woman's share would pass to the man upon her death, supported his claim. The woman's subsequent unilateral change to this will in 2019, without informing him, further strengthened the court's suspicion about her intentions.

The court ruled that the man had proven implied trust and declared him a 50% owner of the house, deeming the woman's refusal to transfer his share as acting in bad faith. The court also criticized both parties for prolonging the legal proceedings. The woman was ordered to pay reduced court costs of NIS 15,000.