Dear Atty. Chris,

I and my boyfriend had been living together for three years before we broke up. While together, I managed to buy the house we were renting. My question is since we were together at the time, can he claim to have any right over the house which I bought with my own money? Thank you.

Kat

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Dear Kat,

Articles 147 and 148 of the Family Code of the Philippines provide the answer to your question. According to these provisions, properties, whether real or personal, acquired by unmarried couples during their cohabitation exclusively as husband and wife belong to both of them. In other words, they owned these properties in common. However, how much the share of each of them would depend on whether or not at the time of the said cohabitation up to its termination, they were legally capacitated to marry each other.

According to Article 147 of the Family Code, "when a man and a woman who are capacitated to marry each other, live exclusively with each other as husband and wife without the benefit of marriage or under a void marriage, their wages and salaries shall be owned by them in equal shares and the property acquired by both of them through their work or industry shall be governed by the rules on co-ownership."

"In the absence of proof to the contrary, properties acquired while they lived together shall be presumed to have been obtained by their joint efforts, work or industry, and shall be owned by them in equal shares. For purposes of this Article, a party who did not participate in the acquisition by the other party of any property shall be deemed to have contributed jointly to the acquisition thereof if the former's efforts consisted in the care and maintenance of the family and of the household."

On the other hand, Article 148 of the Family Code provides as follows:

"In cases of cohabitation not falling under the preceding Article, only the properties acquired by both of the parties through their actual joint contribution of money, property or industry shall be owned by them in common in proportion to their respective contributions. In the absence of proof to the contrary, their contributions and corresponding shares are presumed to be equal."