Are you sure about that? I'm not so certain.
As long as the non-owning party can establish a claim in equity...this can be infered either by shared household bills or decoration etc..or conduct that implies that a common intention to share the property beneficially existed. If such a trust is established then a court will award a share equal to that beneficial interest.
Another way is if there are children, this means a court can transfer the property to the non-owning partner for sole occupancy. The same can be true if the owning partner is convicted of violence toward the non-owning partner as well, albeit rarely and only in the short term.
There is also the doctrine of estoppel, but I cant recall how that works, it has to do with establishing whether assurances were given regarding occupancy...
There is no legal position regarding the term common-law partnership (wife/husband) but that doesn't mean that cohabitees do not have recourse to rights in the courts.
The OP is worried about his house in a marriage/divorce, has he considered what happens to his pension....
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