Selling a house during divorce is difficult.
It’s often much harder than selling at any other time in your life.
There are complicating factors to navigate, such as:
- How is the house divided?
- Who gets to stay? And who should move out?
- Can you live with someone you don’t want to see?
This is completely natural – but with a pragmatic approach, you can still make the right decisions.
So, read on to learn more about divorce and property sales in the UK.
Divorce in the UK: A brief overview
It’s estimated that 42% of marriages in the UK end in divorce.
This equates to around 100,000 divorces a year on average.
The median marriage length before divorce is currently 12.7 years. And unreasonable behaviour remains the number one reason for filing for divorce.
Nearly 1 in 4 couples admit privately that they would leave their partner if they could afford it.
Emotional vs practical motivations
Bitter divorce stories are easy to find.
So, it’s worth bearing this in mind when dealing with your own.
Homes are most people’s largest financial asset. So, how you (and your ex) handle its sale will have long-lasting ramifications for your future finances.
In practical terms, this means it’s always best to focus on de-escalating disagreements and taking time to make decisions (to avoid heat of the moment reactions).
It also means that you or your ex cannot force the other to sell quickly or change the locks on the home (without a court agreement). Due process must be followed.
Who actually owns the house? (you might be surprised…)
Important factors
If you’re married, 50/50 is the starting point for separating assets.
However, the courts adjust this based on several things, including:
- The length of marriage
- Financial contributions
- Earning potential
- Housing needs (for children)
- The standard of living throughout marriage.
The importance of children
In almost all cases, children (if there are any) take precedence over everything else.
They need a secure and safe place to live, with minimal disruption to their life. Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 governs this.
If the family home is the only practical place for your children to live, the court can – and typically will – delay the sale until they’re older.
Unmarried couples
The law treats married and unmarried couples completely differently.
In other words, it does not care about fairness in the same way. It cares about legal ownership.
If the house is in one name, the other person may have zero rights. If you’re joint tenants, ownership defaults to 50/50 unless someone can prove otherwise.
And if you’re tenants in common, your ownership split is whatever the paperwork says.
In unmarried splits, even if you raised kids together or lived together for years, the court won’t automatically recognise your non-financial contributions.
People in this position often feel blindsided – but the law is crystal clear.
Selling a house after divorce isn’t for the faint-hearted
Unless you and your ex ended your relationship amicably, each stage of a house sale can be even more difficult than it usually is.
Valuations can become a warzone when one party is buying the other out. The buyer wants the valuation as low as possible – while the seller wants it as high as possible!
Estate agents know about this tension and sometimes inflate a valuation to win your business.
That’s why the courts almost always rely on independent valuations. You should always do the same.
Joint mortgages
If the mortgage is joint, both partners remain fully responsible for payments – even if one moves out.
If your ex doesn’t pay their share, your credit score can crash. It happens all the time, and feels devastating, when you’ve spent so long building it up.
You also need to consider how your divorce will affect your mortgage prospects later on.
When negotiations break down
If negotiations break down, the court can order:
- An immediate sale
- A delayed sale
- A transfer of ownership.
The court wants fairness, not drama, but fairness doesn’t mean equality.
Ignoring a court order to sell a house will result in serious legal consequences.
Stamp Duty
Stamp duty can get complicated very fast.
It is usually something a buyer needs to consider. But divorcees may encounter it during the transfer of property.
If one party transfers property before they have a court order exempting them from it, they will likely be liable to pay it.
This is where good tax advice is worth its weight in gold. Don’t try to go it alone!
What are your options – and which ones work best?
Your best pathway to a peaceful post-divorce sale depends on many different factors.
It’s not just about how friendly you and your ex-partner are behaving, but also how much money you’ve got, and what your priorities are for the future.
Option 1: Sell the house and split the proceeds.
This is probably the most common, simplest, and cleanest option.
It’s a clean break that allows you to move on – emotionally, and financially.
Option 2: One partner buys out the other.
This is only possible if one of the parties is a high earner, and can afford to do so.
If they’re pooling their finances with a new beau, then this can make things a lot more contentious.
Stick to the facts, and don’t allow emotions to get the better of you.
Option 3: Keep the house jointly (for now).
It’s usually best for parents with young children, who want to give the little ones a stable roof over their head.
One of the most modern techniques is for the parents to move back and forth between the house, not the children. This gives the latter stability.
It’s certainly worth considering!
Option 4: Sell your house quickly and at a discount.
There are several situations where its advisable to sell a house under market value. High conflict divorces are one of them, especially when well-being and safety are on the line.
Just make sure the lower selling price will still allow you to support yourself.
The fastest and most certain option in this situation is selling to a cash buyer (like We Buy Any Home).
Not every divorce can afford to wait for the ‘perfect’ buyer. Sometimes, peace is worth more.
Final advice – don’t make these mistakes!
1. Never rely on assumptions
A huge number of people believe their divorce automatically settled the finances.
It did not. You need a consent order or separation agreement.
2. You must register your home rights
If the house is in your ex’s name only, you can register a home rights notice with the Land Registry. This stops them from selling without you knowing about it.
3. Sever joint tenancy (if necessary)
For example, if you’re splitting, it’s almost always better to switch from joint tenants to tenants in common.
It prevents the house automatically transferring to your ex if you die before the divorce is finalised.
4. Accept that ‘fair’ does not always mean ‘equal’
Courts put the children’s needs first, along with:
- Health
- Future earning capacity
- Living standards.
Dragging things out will cost you emotionally and financially. The longer you delay, the more expensive the situation becomes.
In some cases, mediation might be necessary to help keep things on track.
5. Be realistic about your next chapter
It’s almost impossible to go through a divorce without your living standards dropping.
Don’t cling to a house you can’t afford. Think of it as a fresh start.
A history of divorce & property in the UK
Divorce is not a modern phenomenon.
Many believe that Henry VIII was the first to divorce in 1533 (and then again in 1540). In fact, these were annulments.
After both , each former queen was given property by Henry.
In the 1640s, the famous poet and politician John Milton wrote five pamphlets arguing for divorce. Milton argued that women involved in divorce should be left financially secure.
His arguments scandalised some in puritan Britain. However, divorce itself was made technically legal soon after.
But it wasn’t until the 1670s that the first recorded divorce took place between Lord Roos and Lady Anne Pierrepont on the grounds of adultery. The split was worded in terms related to property, as a “separation from bed and board”.
(Lord Roos’ former father-in-law then challenged him to a duel, which he declined.)
More divorces followed, but it was often only the rich who could afford it.
Scope for divorce widens
In the 1800s, the only realistic route to divorce was a private Act of Parliament – which meant that you had to get MPs to vote on your breakup.
This extremely public and embarrassing, and it took a long time. Not ideal.
Divorce finally became accessible to the general public in 1857, when cases moved from the Church to civil courts.
Still, a man could divorce a woman for adultery, but a woman had to prove adultery plus something else – such as:
- Cruelty
- Desertion
- Insanity.
That’s why it was almost always the men who instigated a separation (if at all).
This often left women penniless and without property.
Divorce Reform Act 1969
The Divorce Reform Act 1969 changed the nature of divorces.
This meant no more proving fault. If the marriage had ‘irretrievably broken down’, couples could break up. Divorce became normalised, and the numbers began climbing.
Divorce through the decades
Over the decades, divorce rates have climbed, peaking in the 1990s before reaching today’s average (this figure is measured by number of divorces per 1,000 marriages):
- 1970s: 9 divorces per 1,000
- 1980s: 12.5
- 1990s: 13.5
- 2000s: 12.0
- 2010s: 9.5
Housing has changed throughout history, so to have property costs and ownership rates. Both buying homes and getting married are per capita rarer now than before.
Divorce and property considerations today
In 2024, Legal & General found that 18% of divorcees over 50 (the largest property-owning demographic) buy out their ex with savings. And 5% use equity release.
The same group considered property wealth the most important factor in their divorce.
Whether this will continue to be the case remains to be seen. Some metrics put this in doubt.
For example, in the 1970s, over 90% or 30 – 34-year-olds were married and around 60% of this age group owned property. Today, only 38% of the same age cohort are married and a similar percentage own property.
Either way, for those who are married and own property today, selling it will likely still be a key consideration in the future.
Addendum: Reasons for divorce
John Gottman’s six signs that predict divorce
One prominent psychologist, named John Gottman, claims to predict divorce with 91% accuracy by looking for six signs:
- Harsh start-up to argument (“You did it again!” before you’ve even sat down)
- ‘The Four Horsemen’: defensiveness, contempt, criticism, stonewalling
- Flooding – meaning someone is too overwhelmed by distress to speak clearly
- Physiological distress – ulcers, headaches, or excessive drinking
- Bad memories – rewriting your history together negatively, and ignoring all the happy memories involved
- Failed repair attempts – you argue, but you never find a consensus at the end
If that sounds familiar, you’re in the danger zone.
‘Linear Prediction of Marital Happiness’
In the 1970s, research led by the psychologist Robyn Dawes looked at couple’s reported martial happiness.
It famously found that a simple equation could accurately predict their reported happiness:
- Frequency of lovemaking minus frequency of quarrels (the goal is not to have a negative number).
