A question that I have regularly been asked over the years is: ‘my spouse has left the matrimonial home – can I change the locks to prevent them returning?’ The answer really depends upon whose home it is. If one spouse excludes the other then the excluded spouse can apply to a court for an order requiring the first spouse to allow him/her back into the property. However, if the property is clearly no longer the excluded spouse’s home then the court is unlikely to make such an order (save, perhaps, to allow the excluded party back briefly to collect their belongings), even where the excluded spouse is a legal owner of the property.
Note that if the excluded spouse forces entry into the property while the other spouse is in occupation then they may be committing a criminal offence, even if they are a legal owner of the property and no occupation order has been made (see below). Even if the other spouse is not in occupation, a court is likely to take a dim view of such behaviour.