Can my partner's son get any rights to the home after she dies?

You asked "My lover just died and we own a home together. We have lived together over 20 years. She has a child of 19. Does he have any rights to our home or do I own the home? There is still a mortgage on our home." It depends on how the property is titled. Both of you are on the mortgage which implies that both names were on the title. Without more information, any further answer would be speculation. You need to get a copy of the deed granting ownership to you and her and have it reviewed by an attorney. The fact that she is on the mortgage does not necessarily mean that she is on the note. The mortgage represents the collateral securing the loan. The Note represents the indebtedness. If she is on the note, that will constitute a claim against her estate. If her child were to assert rights to her interest (assuming that title is not joint with rights of survivorship) that interest would be encumbered by the mortgage and in order to retain the interest, the child may be required to pay for that share of the debt. It is likely that you will need the assistance of an experienced real estate attorney.

If the property is joint with rights of survivorship then the survivor owns the property. If the property is owned tenants in common, then her interest will pass to her heirs through the probate process.

That depends on whether the two of you were smart and used a lawyer or tried to save a few hundred dollars and didn't. Unmarried couples, using a proper will and creatively titling property, can protect themselves. So hopefully you did that.

Look at the deed. If you owned the home as "tenants in common," then her son may now own her half of the home (subject to probate of her estate, and subject to her obligation on the mortgage). If she made a will, her half of the home would pass according to the will. If you owned the home "not as tenants in common, but with right of survivorship," then you own the home. There may be other wrinkles. When compared to the value of your home, the cost of a little legal advice is a good investment. Unmarried partners should always have wills, should always have health directives, and may want to consider exchanging powers of attorney. The law has substantial protections for spouses who are legally married. Unmarried partners need to provide these protections for one another through proper planning.

Your situation touches on several issues, the first of which is whether or not your partner died with a valid Last Will and Testament. If so, you should retain an attorney to assist you with having that Will brought forward and admitted to probate. If not, things get a bit more complicated. When a person dies without a Will in Texas, their estate (including real property subject to a mortgage) passes under the laws of intestacy to their heirs. In the case of an unmarried person with children, the children are the heirs of the decedent. Even then, transferring title to the heirs requires a probate proceeding of some sort, depending on some other circumstances. Thus, the quick answer is that it is very likely that your partner's son (and any other children she might have) now own whatever interest in property your partner owned. As a caveat to the above, you've also got the stage set to assert a common-law marriage. If you're successful in establishing that you and your partner were informally married, the disposition of her estate changes significantly and involves rights held both by her children and by you. Bottom line: locate, consult and retain an attorney to fully advise you of your rights.

It depends on how the home was owned. If it was owned by the two of you in some form with survivorship rights (in Oregon, for non-married persons, it would be tenancy in common with cross contingent remainder interests), then you are the sole owner. If you owned it as tenants in common, her interest (subject to the mortgage) would pass as provided in her will. If she had no will, it would pass to her son.