The law places great restrictions on who lives in the matrimonial house after divorce. The Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act of 2004 and the Finance Act of 1988 do not place primary importance as to the rights of the spouses once the final divorce decree has been passed. The law says clearly that the children of the divorcing couple have to be considered first. This means that the kids of divorcing couples must have their financial and emotional future secured -- this is usually done with the court exercising wide discretion and placing the matrimonial home under the names of the kids. This might mean that, sometimes, the spouses may lose legal control over the marital home and end up staying in rented accommodation. The court does not mean to deprive anyone of their financial and legal rights but the interests of children do come first.
According to the latest figures released by the Office of National Statistics in the
The couple wants to hurt each other and ends up playing dirty with each other in court – showing each other in poor light. Consequently, the couple loses child custody and the possession of the marital home as the court finds both the partners ill-equipped to take care of marital property alone. It keeps the right of possession in its name or transfers it to the kids. In such cases, there is bitterness and tremendous amount of pain and a feeling of blaming the other person. Thus, when divorced couples end up in individual rented homes, life is not the same.
Emotionally, it is a roller-coaster ride with a loss of self-esteem and a feeling of incapacity. The individual experiences symptoms of disassociation and withdrawal. There is a tendency to shut oneself from the exterior world – tend to become a loner with patterns of passive social aggressive behaviour. Research indicates that female divorcees are prone to suicidal behaviours with attacks of depression and panic behavioural syndromes. The matrimonial home usually represents security and financial success and investment in life. Its loss is a great blow to female divorcees psychologically. Loss of the matrimonial home means a loss of self-esteem and motivated dynamism. It sort of cripples female divorcees by telling them they don’t even possess the ability to protect their homes. It indicates to them that they have been failures in life. Male divorcees too undergo the same problem experiencing psychosocial and psychosomatic disorders. They tend to become socially aggressive with abusive and emotionally charged eccentric personalities.
On the professional front, these people f ven the location of the rented home. They tend to socialize at a minimal level, often not communicating with other family members and close friends. On the other hand, people who go through uncontested divorces tend to see the positive effect of divorce. They tend to socialize more, build new relationships and pursue greater activities. But contested divorces succeed in draining the individual of all energy and focus. The individual feels physically and mentally exhausted and on a macro level becomes a burden on society. Such people do not make any economic or social contribution to society. They tend to live in the happy days of the past and tend to sever all ties with children and social acquaintances. Financially too, living alone in a rented accommodation is a great drawback. These individuals have to scale down their standard of living realiising that now the financial expenses have to be borne only by one person. There is no one else to share the expenses. Possibly, there is a lifestyle change of:
- Cutting down on holiday trips
- Change in diet to lower grocery bills
- More aware of electricity and phone expenses
- A scaling down of personal grooming expenditure
Divorcees have to fight for any kind of beneficial benefits. It can be said that divorce does make a person more aware of his or her life direction and focus.
