Married tenants and safeguarding occupancy rights
If there is a sole tenant, the non-entitled spouse can take steps in order to secure and or protect her/his occupancy rights in the matrimonial home.
Protecting occupancy rights
Taking steps to secure the tenancy can allow the non-entitled spouse to continue exercising her/his rights to occupy the property despite the fact that s/he is not the tenant.
The non-entitled spouse can take the following steps to secure the tenancy. S/he can:
pay the rent due [1]
ensure the landlord carries out statutory repairs [2]
carry out essential repairs [3]
take any other steps that the tenant may take to protect her/his occupancy rights [4]
carry out improvements to the home [5] if the court considers that they are necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of the home.
All of the above steps can be taken without the entitled spouse's consent. [6]
Where there are joint tenants, either can carry out non-essential repairs or improvements with the consent of the court. The other joint tenant's consent is not required. [7]
Expenses relating to the home
Either spouse can go to court to seek an order apportioning certain expenditure incurred in the matrimonial home, for example the rent or payment for any essential repairs. This means that a non-entitled spouse could pay the rent to ensure that the family were not evicted and then seek an order regulating payments of rent from her/his spouse. When deciding how to divide the expenditure the court will take account of each spouse's respective financial resources. [8]
Last updated: 6 August 2020