matrimonial home

the residence in which a husband and wife have lived together. In England Wales (where the title is vested in one spouse only) the other spouse has certain rights of occupation that may be protected by registration. The Family Law Act 1996 confers no rights on spouses who already possess proprietary, contractual or statutory rights to occupy the matrimonial home. An innocent spouse who is joint owner of the matrimonial home has, if in occupation, a right not to be evicted or excluded from the dwelling house or any part of it by the other spouse, except by court order, and, if not in occupation, a right by court order to enter and occupy the dwelling house. If a spouse with no proprietary interest in the matrimonial home but in occupation thereof is deserted by his or her spouse, the deserted spouse has a statutory right to remain in occupation and to protect that right by registering it as a land charge, if the land is not subject to the Land Registration Acts or by an entry on the register if it is so subject.

In Scots family law, the matrimonial home is an object of protection under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981, as amended. A matrimonial home is any house, caravan, houseboat or other structure that has been provided or has been made available by one or both of the spouses as, or has become, a family residence, and includes any garden or other ground or building attached and usually occupied with, or otherwise required for the amenity or convenience of, the house, caravan, houseboat or other structure. A matrimonial home does not include a residence acquired by one spouse for his or her exclusive use, even if the children of the family also live there.

The degree of protection in Scotland is primarily directed towards the spouse who has no traditional legal rights over the home. This spouse is called the non-entitled spouse, and that spouse is granted occupancy rights under the Act, which may be enforced by the courts and are hedged in by having to be taken account of in conveyancing procedures. The entitled spouse may be removed from the home if there is a prospect of domestic violence, which is precisely defined in the Act, by means of an exclusion order. Thus, the non-owner may be able to occupy the home while the owner has to perhaps obtain accommodation as a homeless person. Joint owners may not evict each other without the agreement of court.