In New Zealand, you can (effectively) force the co-owner of a property to sell or buy you out. The laws allowing this were introduced decades ago to prevent one

In New Zealand, you can (effectively) force the co-owner of a property to sell or buy you out. The laws allowing this were introduced decades ago to prevent one person in a couple holding the family home 'hostage' (typically, a husband forcing the wife to stay in a failed relationship because she needed a home to raise the kids). A very sensible set of laws I think (someone please feel free to correct/link this property - I can't find a good summary online, although I can find lots of pages that talk about it). Is this not the case in the UK, or did the first guy in the article forgo that option?