It is necessary therefore that the protection available to people in abusive, or potentially abusive, relationships does not recognise those distinctions.However, the failings of the present 1981 act go yet further, as has been highlighted by the Scottish Law Commission, which said: "If a woman who is the owner or tenant of a house cohabits there with a man who is not owner or tenant, and he begins to be violent towards her, she cannot obtain the protection of a matrimonial interdict unless he has applied successfully for occupancy rights",which, in an abusive relationship, he is unlikely to do.