My partner of 17 years left me his $1 million home. His children are crying foul. Am I obliged to split it with them?
My partner of 17 years left me his $1 million home. His children are crying foul. Am I obliged to split it with them?
.Logo_svg__cls-1{fill:#3f0}
The Moneyist
‘I never paid rent, although I put $45,000 toward a new kitchen and a roof’
Dear Quentin,
My late partner, “Daniel,” kept the radio on a classical music station all day, and he was a keen gardener. He was a romantic at heart, and yet he never once asked me to marry him. We didn’t need to. I never thought it was a requirement to get married to satisfy other people’s social conventions, especially later in life. I was 51 and he was 59 when we met, both of us divorced and both (somewhat) wary. Marriage didn’t come up, and that suited us. We kept separate bank accounts and I moved into the house he’d bought in 1998. I stayed for 17 years.
Daniel died six months ago, at 76. The house is now worth roughly $1 million or more, and it has no mortgage. I never paid rent, although I put $45,000 toward a new kitchen and a roof. We both always called it his house, but it was still our home for the best part of two decades.
Copyright ©2026 MarketWatch, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8