My name is Janet. I am 38. I was in a relationship with Patrick for 10 years. He is 48. I run a cooking gas distribution business in Nakuru County while Patrick works as a procurement officer for a county government in the Nairobi metropolitan area.

In July 2021, I decided to end our long term relationship. This was after I busted Patrick with another woman for the umpteenth time. During the time we had been together, Patrick and I acquired multiple properties, some of which are in joint tenancy and others which are not. This included four plots, three of which are in joint tenancy and one which is in his name.

We also bought a Toyota Hilux pick up, and four motorbikes for gas supply in the estates. The logbooks for these are in his name. In 2019, I took a Sh. 2 million loan so that we could start building a home in the plot that has his name on the title. We have been servicing this debt jointly.

We also have a fixed deposit joint account that has about Sh. 800,000, and have registered a company together which I have been using to get government tenders and run the gas business. Now that we have broken up, Patrick has sworn that I won’t get any share in the property we accumulated together because we were not legally married.

This has traumatized me. I feel like I am losing my mind. What can I do to get justice? What are my legal rights before a court of law and how can I claim my sweat?

Esther Masanyangila, an Advocate of the High Court and the founding and managing partner of Masanyangila & Associates Advocates

Subdivision of property between two people who are no longer in a relationship can be a thorny issue. The easiest way out would be negotiations between you and your former lover to reach an amicable solution.

In the event that this is not achievable then you can seek help from the courts. Since you are not legally married, you will need to show proof of your contribution in every claim you make. Start with the company. A company is a separate legal entity from an individual and so if you registered a company and both of you own shares, you could still continue to run it jointly or one of you could relinquish their shares in the company for value.

Property is only referred to as matrimonial property if it was acquired in the course of a marriage by couples who are legally married. When it comes to subdivision of property, courts do not give status to couples that are cohabiting. This means that the property you acquired together will not be subdivided under the matrimonial property regime which is governed by the Matrimonial Property Act.

The subdivision will depend on the regime under which it was registered. In the case of land, the property could either have been registered as joint tenancy or common tenancy. A joint tenancy is when land is conveyed to two or more persons without any words to show that they are to take distinct and separate shares.

No one co-owner has a better right to the property than the other. Tenancy in common on the hand is where two or more people hold the property in equal undivided shares. Each person has a distinct share in the property. Where a property is registered in the joint names of two people, it is assumed that each person made equal contribution towards its acquisition.

This means that for the land with both your names, the court will assume you made an equal contribution. This presumption is however rebuttable by either of you by showing that your contributions were not equal. You will have no legal interest where the property in dispute was not registered in your joint names.

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To claim interest, you will have to prove your respective proportion of financial contribution towards the acquisition or development of the property you are claiming.

The courts will have the jurisdiction to allocate to you a portion of the disputed property as it deems just. It may also order a transfer of the share of the property to you.