These are no ordinary times in financially strapped Spain, and this is no ordinary divorce ruling as a result: A judge in Seville has ordered a couple to split their home—and she is not speaking figuratively, reports the Local. The judge says the couple should go on living at the same property after bisecting the 2,700-square-foot apartment into two distinct units, reports the New York Times. The wife will live upstairs with their two daughters and the husband downstairs.
Yes, it might result in uncomfortable encounters, but that's “the lesser of two evils in view of the economic situation presented by both parties,” ruled the judge. The husband must pay for the renovations. “It is an extraordinary decision that could encourage other judges to seek similarly extreme solutions,” a Barcelona lawyer tells the Times. “Spain’s economic crisis has changed everything.” (More divorce stories.)