No, unless they made a property relations agreement which said that the parties’ property rights were to be proportionate to their relative investment in the property, then they will be entitled to equal shares.
Where there is no such agreement and once a property is registered in joint names it is accepted that they intended for it to be equally owned between them. Only where marital property is registered in one party’s name is their room for arguing about ownership and the amounts each invested.
In the leading case (Dakar v Dakar ) before the Supreme Court in the 80’s, it was held: ‘ When a couple register a property in joint ownership there is an assumption that they intended balance and equality, and any surplus contribution of one side is within the framework of a concession or gift from one side to the other. Such a contribution is connected with the marriage, and it finds its expression in the consent to the registration of joint ownership. A different approach would empty the accepted norm of partnership of the couple’s home of all its meaning and turn it into a dead letter.’