Can seperated wife live in house owned by husband?

Aytoun27

Hi,
I don’t know if anyone can help with this. My aunt is separated from her husband, but no divorce proceedings have been started by either of them. She is currently living in privately rented flat in an area with a high crime rate, lots of social problems etc.
Her husband owns a house which he inherited from his mother. It’s empty at the moment (He is living & working in another part of the UK), but he’s told her that he doesn’t want her to live there.
The question is does she have any legal right to live there regardless of his wishes? I suspect that the answer is no, but I just wanted to see if anyone has any other info.
Thank you.

zzzLazyDaisy

Assuming the house is in his name, then no she has no right to live there.

Also if she gets LHA she should be aware that, generally, you can't get LHA where landord and tenant are closely related (there are exceptions but that's the starting point)

If the marriage is truly over, she should start divorce proceedings sooner rather than later, as that house will probably form part of the joint matrimonial assets and she may well be entitled to a share of the equity, which might provide her with funds to enable her to move.

RAS

Do she have any children of school age?

Why has she not started divorce proceedings?? This would split the assets of the marriage, generally half each. So she would get half the value of the inherited house plus anything else that was part of the marriage assets.

She can download the forms from the internet and it cost £380 to file them at the court.

In the meantime also register an interest in the inherited house and any other property with the Land Registry to prevent him selling it and disposing of the value. Again, download the forms fro the LR.

theartfullodger

In Scotland she may have a right

Land_Registry

RAS wrote: »

In the meantime also register an interest in the inherited house and any other property with the Land Registry to prevent him selling it and disposing of the value. Again, download the forms fro the LR.

RAS is, I suspect, referring to the issues arisign under the Family Law Act - see our Practice Guide on the subject

The guide gives advice on how to protect, renew or cancel a spouse’s home rights arising under specific legislation. Please note though that it is aimed at conveyancers and covers subjects any legal adviser is likely to refer to.

The registration of such interests is relatively straightforwrad but the legal matters involved can be quite complex so we would always recommend seeking such advice before proceeding.

Aytoun27

Thank you for all your replies. This is what I suspected would be the case.

Fire_Fox

She really needs to have an initial appointment with a solicitor.

RAS

Fire_Fox wrote: »

She really needs to have an initial appointment with a solicitor.

Yep.

What I tend to suggest is an appointment to find out what can be expected in the circumstances.

Then start proceedign herself.

And use the solicitor for the financial settlement; as that is where the expert knowledge and balls are required. Some of the disasters seen on here are terrifying.