Married tenants and the matrimonial home

If a property falls within the definition of matrimonial home then each spouse's right to occupy it will be protected by matrimonial homes legislation. For more information on rights and obligations, please see the page on rights to occupy the home and the page on obligations for the home.

The matrimonial home is defined as:

• a home which has been provided or made available by one or both of the spouses for them to live in together as the family home

• where the house has become a family home.

As well as covering houses and flats the definition also includes caravans and houseboats. The definition of a matrimonial home includes any ground or garden attached to the house and usually occupied with the house or otherwise required for the amenity or convenience of the house. [1]

The married couple do not have to have lived in the house for it to be a matrimonial home. The home only has to have been intended for both of them to live in. [2] If either partner has rented a house that is to be lived in separately from the other spouse then that would not be a matrimonial home. [3]

Once a home has become a matrimonial home it continues to be so as long as the tenant and her/his partner remain married. However, if the tenancy of a matrimonial home is transferred from one spouse to the other by agreement or under enactment on or after 4 May 2006 [4] and following the transfer the spouse to whom the tenancy was transferred occupies the home, but the other spouse does not, the home shall cease to be a matrimonial home. [5] For more information, please see the page on staying in the home long term.

The property will also cease to be a matrimonial home if the non-entitled spouse does not cohabit with the entitled spouse or occupy the matrimonial home for a period of two years beginning on or after 4 May 2006. [6] For more information, please see the section on rights to occupy the home.