Under the law in England and Wales, Matrimonial Home Rights ensure that both married spouses or civil partners retain the legal right to stay in the marital home, even if they do not own it throughout the divorce process and until a divorce financial settlement is reached. Indeed, this is one of the many important financial and legal benefits of being married.
A Matrimonial Home Rights Notice (also known as a Notice of Home Rights) is the formal process of registering your rights to your marital home with HM Land Registry. Once your Matrimonial Home Rights Notice is registered, it will be recorded against the property’s official records. The effect of a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice is to:
- Protect your rights to occupy your matrimonial or civil partnership home.
- Prevent your former spouse from selling, transferring, or remortgaging your marital home without your knowledge and consent.
You can register a Notice of Home Rights, which applies no matter who owns the property (i.e., sole ownership or joint ownership). However, it is important to note, that a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice can only be used to protect your right to the main family home and does not apply to other properties. As such, it cannot be used to protect against the sale of other properties (dissipation of assets) by your former spouse during the divorce process. Furthermore, Matrimonial Home Rights do not apply to cohabiting couples who are not married or in a civil partnership. Rights for couples living together but not married are often limited. Therefore, unmarried couples often consider a Cohabitation Agreement to help ensure that their legal and financial rights are protected.
How to register a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice
To register a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice with the HM Land Registry, you will need to complete and submit an application for registration of a notice of home rights1. You will be asked to provide details of:
- The local authority serving the property
- The title number of the property
- Address, including a service address
- Contact address, including an email address
- Your name of your husband, wife or civil partner
You will also be asked to confirm if there is an Occupation Order currently in force. An Occupation Order is issued by the family courts and sets out who can remain living in a property.
The completed HR1 form should be sent to:
HM Land Registry
Citizen Centre
PO Box 74
Gloucester
GL14 9BB
On average, it takes around 4 months to process a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice, but your home protection rights will apply from the date that your application is received. You may be able to ask the HM Land Registry to expedite your application if any delay might lead to legal, financial, or personal problems not related to a land transaction, or put a property transaction at risk (e.g. a remortgaging offer).
Your Matrimonial Home Rights Notice will last until you receive your Divorce Final Order confirming that your marriage has legally ended. However, it may come to an end earlier if the court issues an order removing the notice or if it is removed by the applicant.
How to remove a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice
You can remove a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice after a Divorce Final Order (Decree Absolute) by completing and submitting form HR4 (Application for the cancellation of a home rights order)2. Once completed, your HR4 form should be sent to HM Land Registry to be processed.
Leaving a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice in place when it is no longer required can delay and complicate the sale, transfer, or remortgage of the property. You may choose to remove the Home Rights notice if your ex-spouse dies, you come to an agreement with your ex-spouse regarding the property, or you believe it is no longer necessary for any reason. As such, removing the Matrimonial Home Rights Notice will allow the property to be sold, transferred or remortgaged.
It can take several weeks for a cancellation of a Matrimonial Home Rights Notice to be processed by the Land Registry. If necessary, you may be able to have your application expedited to be processed within 10 working days if you have a valid reason for doing so.
References
1 GOV.UK: Form HR1
2 GOV.UK: Form HR4
