Husband yearns for home advantage

MARRIED for 55 years and living in the same house, but with the roof over his head now at risk, Ben Gray is in a perilous place.

- By MAISHA FROST

Difficult issues of ownership, financial contributions, inheritance and personality clashes have created a ticking time bomb for the retired carpenter whose attempts to safeguard his situation have so far come to nothing.

His marital home is owned by his wife who wouldn’t agree to him co-owning the property, despite him contributing to bills and upkeep. She has now left it to her adult son by a former marriage.

"But my stepson wants all the space he can get and is divorced, if my wife dies I could be left with nothing. I'm at the end of my tether,” Ben confessed to Crusader, so we asked leading law firm Lodders Solicitors (lodders. co.uk) to advise.