Can your partner lock you out of the house?

There are actually very few circumstances where a partner can be forced to leave their home and they will usually have a right to stay in (or return to) the family home if they are married, in a civil partnership, a co-owner or named on a tenancy agreement.

Can a married couple change the locks on their home?

If the now-separated married couple were living in the matrimonial home, and one of them has moved out, neither the Family Law Act nor other legislation entitles the remaining spouse to change the locks.

Do you need legal advice before changing the locks?

Yes you should get legal advice before you change the locks, especially in the case of a common law marriage. Often the time after separation is very difficult and complex and what you may have interpreted as an agreement to you changing the locks may not actually have been an agreement.

Can a husband evict you if you change the locks?

Eviction Must Be Legal. As an owner of the home, you can change the locks if you choose. However, this doesn’t change your husband’s right to occupy the home — or even change the locks back — if he shares ownership with you.

What happens if you change the locks on Your House?

If you do change the locks and your spouse continues to help pay the mortgage, you may be liable for occupation rent This means that you are living in a home which they help pay for and therefore you owe them rent as a result of their contribution to the home, which you have deprived them of without their consent

Can a spouse lock their spouse out of the House?

Sometimes a spouse will go away for a trip, or even go to work for the day, and return home to find the locks changed. These situations raise the important questions of when one spouse may permissibly lock the other out of the marital home, or may change the locks to prevent a spouse who has moved out from returning.

What happens to your home when you separate?

3. Once a home is designated a matrimonial home, both spouses are equally entitled to possession of it upon separation. Once the spouses separate, neither of them can legally exclude the other from the matrimonial home, no matter who owned the home prior to marriage.