Not always. When a parent takes title to help you buy a home with a gifted down payment, and you pay the mortgage expecting title to pass to you, a Massachusetts judge can find that the parent holds the property in a constructive trust for you and refuse to evict you. The Appeals Court affirmed exactly that result in a Housing Court eviction case between a father and his son. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
In 2016 a son and his partner wanted to buy a home in Marshfield. The son’s parents paid the down payment and closing costs, which the judge found were a gift. Because the father had better credit, he took the mortgage and title in his own name. The judge found the family’s understanding was that once the son’s credit improved, the couple would buy the home from the father for the remaining mortgage balance and he would transfer title. For years the couple paid the father amounts equal to the mortgage, insurance, taxes and utilities, and the son, a skilled carpenter, did much of the work on improvements. After the relationship broke down in 2023, the couple stopped paying, and the father served notices to quit and brought a summary process case. By trial, the couple had paid what was outstanding.
What the court decided
After a bench trial, the Housing Court judge entered judgment for the son and his partner, and the Appeals Court affirmed in Lannon v. Lannon, No. 24-P-794 (Mass. App. Ct. July 10, 2025) (Rule 23.0 decision).
What a constructive trust is. A constructive trust is a flexible equitable tool. Courts use it to prevent unjust enrichment when someone’s legal title to property comes from fraud, a breach of a fiduciary duty or confidential relationship, mistake, or other circumstances that make keeping it unjust. Maffei v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, 449 Mass. 235 (2007). Judges have discretion in imposing equitable remedies, and appeals courts review them for abuse of that discretion. Cavadi v. DeYeso, 458 Mass. 615 (2011).
The down payment was a gift. The father argued the money was not a gift. The judge believed the son, his partner and the son’s mother, and did not believe the father. The Appeals Court gives due regard to those credibility calls and would not disturb them.
Keeping the house would be unjust. Whether a benefit is unjust depends on the parties’ reasonable expectations. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Cotter, 464 Mass. 623 (2013). If the father kept the house, he would get the gifted down payment, the value of the improvements, the market appreciation and the equity built by the couple’s payments. Since everyone expected title to pass to the couple, that result would be unjust.
The Statute of Frauds did not control. The Statute of Frauds, G.L. c. 259, § 1, generally requires a signed writing for a contract to sell land. The court did not need to decide that issue. A related statute, G.L. c. 203, § 1, requires a writing to create a trust in land, but it expressly excepts trusts that arise by implication of law, and a constructive trust is one of those.
The court added one limit. If the couple want relief based on the trust, such as a transfer of title, they must seek it in a court with power to grant it. The ruling here defeated the eviction.
What this means for you
Family arrangements around a home are common. A relative with better credit buys the house, and the person living there pays the mortgage. When things go wrong, the relative on the deed may try to evict. This decision shows that a Housing Court judge can look past the deed to what the family actually agreed and who actually paid.
But these cases turn on proof and credibility. The couple won because the judge believed their account of the gift and the plan to transfer title. Without a written agreement, you depend on witnesses, payment records and the judge’s view of who is telling the truth. And winning the eviction case does not by itself put the deed in your name.
What to do now
- If you are in this kind of arrangement now, put the agreement in writing and have everyone sign it.
- Keep records of every payment you make toward the mortgage, taxes, insurance and repairs, and of the work you do on the home.
- If you receive a notice to quit from a family member, do not ignore it. Raise the agreement and your payments as a defense in the summary process case.
- Ask a lawyer whether you also need a separate case to get title transferred.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. Housing Court deadlines are short.
