matrimonial home
noun · Ehewohnung
Ehewohnung is the right word, but German law protects and allocates the matrimonial home through its own route. During separation a spouse can be required to leave it to the other to avoid an unbillige Härte, § 1361b BGB, and on divorce the court can allocate it, including transferring a tenancy, § 1568a BGB. There is no registrable home right as in England, but the protection is real.
Which translation, when
Why
The English matrimonial home is dealt with through occupation orders and home rights under the Family Law Act 1996, a non-owning spouse has home rights that can be registered as a charge against the property, and disputes over occupation are resolved by discretionary order. German law reaches the home differently. While the spouses live apart, one can demand that the other leave the Ehewohnung, wholly or in part, where this is necessary to avoid an unbillige Härte, § 1361b BGB, and on divorce the court can allocate the home to one spouse, including stepping into or transferring a tenancy so that the landlord must accept the change, § 1568a BGB. The household goods are divided on their own footing, § 1568b BGB, not merged into a single financial award. There is no direct equivalent of the registrable home right, protection during the marriage flows instead from the property regime, where a spouse in Zugewinngemeinschaft cannot dispose of the home as their whole or main asset without consent, § 1365 BGB. So Ehewohnung translates cleanly, but the mechanism around it, allocation rather than occupation orders, tenancy transfer, separate treatment of household goods, is German-specific.
Typical mistakes
- German law has no registrable home right of the English kind, the protection comes from allocation, § 1361b and § 1568a BGB, and from the disposal restriction of the property regime, § 1365 BGB, so looking for a home rights charge to register misreads the system.
- The court can transfer the tenancy of the Ehewohnung on divorce, § 1568a BGB, binding the landlord, a power English law reaches by a different route, so assuming the tenancy simply follows the named tenant is wrong.
- Household goods are allocated separately, § 1568b BGB, not swept into one financial award, so treating the Ehewohnung and its contents as a single asset misstates the German division.
What matters
A separating couple in a jointly occupied home with a German connection: rendering matrimonial home as Ehewohnung is right, but the reader must see that German law allocates it, § 1361b and § 1568a BGB, and can transfer the tenancy, rather than granting the registrable home right an English adviser would look for.
What the machine misses
Matrimonial home is rendered Ehewohnung accurately, but the output cannot convey that the German home is dealt with by allocation, § 1361b and § 1568a BGB, and that the court can even transfer a tenancy, where English law works through occupation orders and a registrable home right. The reader assumes an English-style home right and misses that German protection runs through allocation and the property regime, § 1365 BGB, instead.
Examples
| to allocate the matrimonial home | die Ehewohnung zuweisen |
| to remain in the matrimonial home | in der Ehewohnung verbleiben |
| the household goods | der Hausrat |