The property slump is forcing estranged Irish spouses to carry on living together, according to lawyers.

The worst property crisis to hit the country since divorce was introduced 12 years ago, is deterring warring couples from selling the family home and dividing up the proceeds.

Many unhappily married couples, who have to live apart for four out of five years to secure a divorce, are opting to stay under one roof rather than face a division of a matrimonial property that is depreciating in value.

“They are in limbo,” said Gillian O’Mahoney, a family law solicitor at Lynch & Partners in Clonmel, who has dealt with about 20 such cases this year.

“Some have agreed to sell the house and divvy up the assets, but because the house isn’t selling they can’t afford to buy new homes and move on with their lives. One couple have been trying to sell their home for over a year.”

Judicial separations cannot be finalised until the property is sold and the proceeds shared under court orders, but this process is complicated by the 9.7% drop in residential property prices in the past year. The situation is unlikely to resolve itself in the near future, with economists predicting further price falls.

“The property market is slowing everything down,” said Sheila Healy, the Family Mediation Service’s area co-ordinator for the eastern region. “Not only are properties difficult to sell but the banks are not giving spouses mortgages for new homes.”

Marion Campbell, who leads the family law team at Malcolmson Law, has this year dealt with about 20 couples who found the property downturn to be a stumbling block in seeking a separation or divorce.

“I have four new clients whose marriages have broken down, who are trying to hang on in there to get more for their house when the market recovers,” she said.

“A lot of my clients would like to leave the house but they need money to put a deposit on separate accommodation. The vast majority of them have an average salary of between ¤30,000 and ¤40,000 and the family home is often their one main asset.”

Family lawyers also expect a jump in property adjustment and maintenance orders when the circuit courts reopen from the legal holiday in October.

“I believe that, in the coming month, courts will see a substantial increase in applications where one or the other spouse will try to change financial commitments already made and come to new arrangements,” said Alan Shatter, a family law consultant and Fine Gael TD. “This will especially be true for people dependent on the property market. Developers and professionals such as surveyors or solicitors who are the casualties of broken marriages and have entered into agreements, now find themselves in dramatically different financial circumstances.”

Even if one estranged spouse agrees to buy out the other, they are less likely to win mortgage approval as banks tighten credit standards in response to the global credit crunch, says Yvonne Nolan, a family law solicitor at McCann FitzGerald in Dublin.

Between 2002 and 2006, the number of divorced people in Ireland jumped 70% to 59,500, the latest census figures show.

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