ABSTRACT

The fate of the matrimonial home will usually be the linchpin of any ancillary relief package for the simple reason that every family needs somewhere to live: whether it is to be sold, transferred outright to one party or made the subject of a deferred settlement the fate of the home will have a profound effect on the remainder of the provision ordered. It is therefore usual in our contemporary homeowning times for the court to view the resolution of the various competing claims to what may loosely be termed the ‘matrimonial assets’ (although in English law there is technically no such thing) by making one order dealing with all aspects of the parties’ ancillary relief applications, and unless there is (rarely) no former joint home involved, to build their order holistically around the disposal of the home. This highly discretionary duty of the court to make appropriate orders in relation to the home has developed naturally as a consequence of the post-war expansion in home ownership generally, and also from the development over the past 25 years of the trend towards regarding marriage as an equal partnership, the routine joint tenancy of the matrimonial home and of the normality of the wife’s working in order to help fund the mortgage payments and the expenses of bringing up a family which appears no longer to be possible out of one salary.