Shelter From The Storm

Proposals to change the way income and property are split in divorce cases aim to put children’s interests first. But some fear kids will become pawns in a legal and financial stalemate. Donna Chisholm reports.

Clean break. They’re two words you won’t find in the laws governing the division of property after relationships end, yet, for more than 40 years, the idea that couples should move on and start afresh as soon as practicable after a split has been a cornerstone of judicial decisions and legal advice.

Now, however, that looks set to change, with the Law Commission releasing its preferred approach to a revamp of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976. It wants the best interests of children to become a primary consideration in property division, saying that may involve delaying the sale of the family home to allow the primary caregiver – often the mother – to remain there with the children.

For women such as Linda (not her real name), whose 12-year relationship ended a few years ago, leaving her battling to keep her children in the home they’d grown up in, it’s a welcome change – even if it’s too late for her.

Her former partner wanted his money out of the property quickly so he could start anew, and their house was put up for sale two months after they separated.

“There was huge pressure to put it on the market and split the money. The prospect of renting somewhere that would be more expensive than an interest-only mortgage and having to move the kids was just awful, because it comes right off the back of such a brutal change in the make-up of their family.

“My No 1 priority was to hang on to that house and stay in the property market as a single woman, but to have as little disruption to the lives of my children as possible.”