What is the difference between”my house” and “my home”

Home is your place of abode, where you reside or where you live. Your house is a building that belongs to you or which you own.

Sometimes, your house may also be your home. Some other times, the house you use as your home may in fact belong to someone else (your landlord). Your right to your home is more closely protected by law than your right to your house, though your right to your house is longer in duration than the right to your home.

One of the most important rights to your home, which you may not have to your house is called the right to peaceful enjoyment or right to habitability. Your home must be peaceful, enjoyable and habitable. But not necessarily so with respect to your house. Your house is still your house, even if it is not enjoyable, or even if it is uncompleted house or even if there is no running water in it. But your home has to be habitable.

Sometimes, the place you call home may be a place another person calls his house. Let us assume your right to the home collides with the other person’s right to the house. Where am I going with this?

DPA is presently handling a case where a man said to his wife: “Pack out of my house!”. And the woman started packing. As she packed, she called DPA and we had to come in. In fact, I just finished talking with her and the “owner” of the house.

We reason it like this: even if the house is the man’s house (alone), the fact is that that house is the woman’s home. Since the man is claiming as the owner of the house, fine, the woman is claiming it as her home. Her rights are that of peaceful enjoyment of a habitable, safe and secure home. The man should leave the house immediately because his presence there makes the house unhabitable and unenjoyable to the woman. For now, let us deal with the peaceful enjoyment of the place (as a home) and later, we will deal with the ownership issues as a house.

No man has the right in law to tell his wife to pack out because it is his house. That house is her home. She is not a trespasser or a visitor or guest that you allowed into your house for few days. That’s her home. And she has right to peaceful enjoyment of her home.

If your husband tells you to pack out of “his house”, call DPA. It may not really be his house alone. It may be the house of both of you. But in any event, even if it is his house, it is your home, and as such you ought to have the right of peaceful enjoyment of your home. Never agree to pack out of your home regardless of who owns the house.