After years of arguments and tension, Steve and Diana finally decided to separate. Their mortgage situation, however, meant they were stuck with each other until the stale property market revived. So they came up with a peculiar solution – one week Steve would live in their house while Diana slept on a friend's sofa. The next week, they would swap. The plan unravelled when Steve fell out with his friend and ended up sleeping in his car. Angela Lake-Carroll, an independent family law consultant who advised the couple (their names have been changed), says such situations are far from unusual. She has also dealt with couples who divide a house into upstairs and downstairs with a rigid timetable for kitchen and bathroom use.
在維持了多年爭吵不斷的緊張關係後，史蒂夫和黛安娜（均爲化名）終於決定離婚了。但是，他們按揭貸款的狀況意味著，在低迷的房地產市場復活之前，他們將依然彼此糾纏在一起。因此，他們想出了一個獨特的解決方案——某一週史蒂夫會住在他們的房子裏，而黛安娜則睡在朋友的沙發上；下一週，他們再互換角色。當史蒂夫和他的朋友鬧翻，最終在他的汽車裏安家之後，這對夫婦的問題才得以解決。爲他們提供諮詢的家庭法律獨立顧問安格拉•萊克-卡羅爾(Angela Lake-Carroll)說，這種情況遠算不上異乎尋常。她還服務過這樣一對夫妻：兩人分居於樓上、樓下，就廚房和浴室的使用制定了嚴格的時間表。