Who Stays and Who Goes from the Matrimonial Home?

If you and your ex are divorcing, probably the biggest asset that you jointly own is your home. You will both need to decide what is going to happen to your home, taking into account your joint financial circumstances, your individual incomes, and the needs of your children.

Mortgage Payments and Equity

Before you decide whether one person is going to stay in the home or not, you and your ex need to work out how much equity is in your property and what your property is worth. It may be that one person staying in the family home is too expensive, so when deciding this issue it is well worth having a good idea of income and outgoings. It isn’t just the mortgage that you’ll need to consider, but also:

  • home contents and buildings insurance,
  • mortgage payment insurance,
  • council tax, and
  • the cost of meeting utility bills.
You should also consider the upkeep of the property. How will the garden be maintained? How will new decorations or other work be paid for? If you have children, will you be able to support them sufficiently and maintain the family home at the same time? As everyone knows, children become more expensive the older they get.

Do You Really Want to Stay?

Of course this is entirely your decision, but a fresh start in a different house may be just the thing you need. You can make it your own, and buy something that is comfortably within your budget. Just because you’re starting again doesn’t mean that your home will necessarily feel like ‘home’ after your marriage has broken up.

Who Needs What?

If one of you is moving out, you will need to decide what stays and what goes. As your ex will be looking to move into another property it could be that they rent or buy somewhere and needs some of the furniture from your home. This is obviously entirely up to you both, but you should be prepared to budget for the extra expense involved in furnishing an extra home.

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Children

You will naturally want your divorce to have as little impact on your children as possible. Would they be able to stay at the same school? Are there affordable properties within the area? Or would you want to move elsewhere? If so, what effect would this have on your children's lives and on their ability to have contact with the non-resident parent? Similarly, if you or your spouse’s jobs are in the local area you may want to consider the practicalities of moving further away or staying where you are.

Both Staying on the Deeds

It is not all that rare for both spouses to remain on the deeds of the property even after divorce. This may be because they decided not to sell the property at the time, or because the spouse remaining in the home could not afford to meet the mortgage payments on their own. In these circumstances it would be worth checking whether you and your ex own the property by way of ‘joint tenancy’ or a ‘tenancy in common.’ This is because if you are ‘tenants in common’, you can leave your share of the property to someone else in your will. If you are ‘joint tenants’ your share will automatically pass to your ex spouse on your death. For obvious reasons, this may not be what you want.