What is a home rights notice?

What are home rights?

Home rights come from section 30 of the Family Law Act 1996. They apply when one spouse or civil partner is entitled to live in the home, usually because they own it, and the other is not.

If you are the spouse without that entitlement, the Act gives you two rights. If you live there, you cannot be evicted or shut out by your partner without the court's permission. If you have already left, you can ask the court for permission to move back in.

The home must have been your matrimonial or civil partnership home, or intended to be. You have these rights automatically because you are married. Registering a notice is what makes them visible to anyone buying the property or lending against it.

What does a home rights notice actually do?

By law your home rights are a charge on your partner's ownership (section 31). On registered land, that charge only protects you against a buyer or lender if it is entered on the register as a notice. Home rights do not count as an interest that binds a buyer without registration.

Once the notice is on the title, a buyer's or lender's solicitor will see it. In practice that makes it very hard for your partner to sell or remortgage behind your back. HM Land Registry's practice guide 20 also notes that a lender enforcing its mortgage must give notice to a spouse whose home rights are protected, which matters if payments stop.

What a notice does not do:

• It does not give you ownership or a share of the property's value. That is decided in the financial side of the divorce.
• It does not protect more than one home at a time.
• It is not needed if you already own the home jointly with your partner, both legally and beneficially.

How do you register a notice of home rights?

1. Check who owns the home. A copy of the title register from HM Land Registry costs £7 and shows the owner, the title number and whether there is a mortgage.
2. If the property is registered and only in your partner's name, fill in Form HR1. There is no fee. Send it to the HM Land Registry Citizen Centre address shown on GOV.UK.
3. If the property is not registered, apply instead for a Class F land charge on Form K2. GOV.UK lists the fee as £1.
4. Wait for the letter. HM Land Registry will write to confirm the registration, and it also writes to your spouse or civil partner to tell them.

GOV.UK says you cannot use this route if your partner owns the home with someone else, unless your partner would receive all of the sale money. Your partner being told is often the part people worry about. A family solicitor can talk through the timing if there are safety concerns.

How long does a home rights notice last?

Home rights end when either of you dies or when the marriage or civil partnership ends, which in a divorce means the final order (section 31(8)). GOV.UK puts it simply: you can usually stay only until the divorce is finalised and a court settlement is agreed.

If the financial settlement is not sorted by the final order, the court can make a continuation order so your rights carry on. You then protect them by sending Form HR2 (or HR1 if you never registered) with an official copy of the order. It is also a reason to take legal advice before applying for the final order while the money is still unresolved.

When the rights end, the notice is removed using Form HR4 with evidence such as the final order or a death certificate.

What if you are not married?

Cohabiting partners do not have home rights under the Family Law Act, however long you have lived together. If the home is in your partner's sole name, your position depends on whether you can show a share in it, for example because you paid towards the deposit or there was an agreement that you would own part of it.

Someone who believes they have a share under a trust cannot register a notice for it. Instead they can apply to HM Land Registry for a restriction, using form RX1 (practice guide 19). Whether you actually have a share is a legal question that turns on the facts, and it is worth getting a solicitor's view before applying. GOV.UK points unmarried couples to Citizens Advice guidance on separating.

HM Land Registry fees for home rights

Source: GOV.UK: staying in your partner's property

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