Do You Have to Sell Your House in a Divorce?

You do not automatically have to sell your house when you divorce in the UK. Whether the property needs to be sold will depend on the needs and finances of both parties, the welfare of the children from the marriage, and whether you and your spouse can reach an agreement or need to ask the court to decide what is fair. In most cases, both spouses have a legal right to remain in the marital home during the divorce, regardless of who owns it. This is because the non‑owning spouse has ‘matrimonial home rights’, which give them the right to occupy the property as their home while the marriage continues. Even if your name is not on the title or mortgage, you can usually stay in the property unless there is a court order saying otherwise.

Non‑owning spouses can strengthen their rights to stay in the family home by registering their matrimonial home rights with HM Land Registry. Once registered, a notice appears on the title register, which prevents the owning spouse from selling, transferring, or remortgaging the property without your knowledge. This stops the house from being dealt with behind your back while you sort out your divorce financial settlement. If you and your spouse can agree on what happens to the house, you can record this in a consent order and ask the family court to approve it. If necessary, the court can make a property adjustment order, which may include transfer of ownership, a delayed sale, or, in some cases, an order that the property must be sold.

How to avoid selling my house in a divorce?

If your marital home is owned jointly by you and your partner, you will usually both need to agree to a sale. If one of you wants to keep the house, there are several options to achieve a fair outcome and avoid selling it, including:

• One spouse buying out the other’s share
• Offsetting the house against other assets, such as pensions or savings
• Delaying the sale where there are dependent children (for example, under a Mesher order)
• Transferring ownership to one spouse with a legal charge in favour of the other

Each option should usually be made legally binding in a consent order or property adjustment order approved by the court.

Buy out your spouse’s share

Buying out means one spouse keeps the property and compensates the other for their share of the equity. Equity is the difference between the market value of the home and the outstanding mortgage. For example, if your house is worth £300,000 and the mortgage is £150,000, the equity is £150,000, and if you own it equally, your spouse’s share would usually be around £75,000. To buy out your spouse, you may need to:

• Get a professional valuation of the property
• Arrange a new mortgage in your sole name if you need borrowing to fund the buyout and to release your spouse from the existing mortgage
• Complete a transfer of equity to the other party, and
• Ensure the legal title goes into your name only

Offsetting with other assets

If there are other significant assets available, one spouse may keep the family home, and the other may receive a larger share of other assets instead. This is known as ‘offsetting’. Examples of assets that can be used to offset include:

• Pensions
• Savings and investments
• Other properties or land, and
• Businesses

For instance, if the spouse who wants to keep the house agrees that the other spouse will take a higher share of the pension or savings, this can balance out the value of the equity they are giving up. This can avoid a property sale, provided the overall agreement is fair and practical.

Delay the sale of property if there are dependent children

If there are dependent children living in the home, housing their needs is usually the first priority. In some cases, the court may decide that the best option is to delay the sale of the family home so that the children can stay there with their main carer. This can be done using a type of order often called a Mesher order, where:

• One parent (usually the primary carer) stays in the house with the children
• The other parent’s interest in the property is preserved, often as a percentage share, and
• The property is sold at a later date when a trigger event occurs, such as the youngest child finishing full‑time education or reaching a set age.

When the trigger event happens, the house is sold, and the sale proceeds are divided according to the terms of the order, after repaying the mortgage and costs. This arrangement can help avoid an immediate sale but still give both parties access to their share of the equity in the future.

Transfer of ownership with a legal charge

Another way to avoid an immediate sale of the family home following divorce is for the house to be transferred into the sole name of one spouse, with a legal charge in favour of the other. This means that one spouse becomes the legal owner of the property and the other spouse has a secured interest registered against the title, often reflecting an agreed amount or percentage. The person with the benefit of the charge gets the right to be paid from the property if certain things happen, including when the property is sold or the owning spouse remortgages.

This option can be useful where one spouse needs clear ownership, for example, to refinance the mortgage, but it is still fair for the other spouse to receive a share of the value later. As with other solutions, the arrangement is normally set out in a court order so that it is binding and can be enforced if needed.

Can I be forced to sell my house in a divorce?

In some situations, you can be forced to sell your house by the court in a divorce in the UK. If you and your spouse cannot agree on how to deal with the property and you ask the family court to decide, the court has the power to order a sale as part of a financial remedy or property adjustment order. This can happen even if the property is in your sole name and you bought it before the marriage. The court will look at all of the circumstances, including how long you have lived together, your respective needs and resources, and the welfare of any children. The law aims to achieve a fair outcome and to ensure, as far as possible, that both parties can be housed after the divorce. The court is more likely to order a sale where there are no dependent children living in the property and where there is no realistic, fair alternative, such as a buyout or deferred sale. It may also be necessary to sell the house if:

• Your joint income is needed to pay the existing mortgage, and neither of you can meet the payments alone
• One or both of you cannot get a new mortgage offer in your sole name because of income or credit issues
• The property is in negative equity or has very little equity, making a buyout or offset difficult.

In these situations, the court may decide that the fairest solution is to order the house to be sold and the net proceeds divided between you. This can allow both parties to downsize, rent, or find alternative housing that is more affordable.

Where there are no dependent children living in the home, the court has more flexibility to order an immediate sale if that is the only way to reach a fair and workable outcome. If there are children, the court will usually look first at whether their housing can be secured without an immediate sale, for example, through a deferred sale arrangement.