A Russian couple have negotiated their divorce in a unique way, by building a wall through the centre of their home.

While the idea may sound like a Trump policy, it had the approval of the Russian courts earlier this year.

The wall has meant that part-owner Margareta Tsivtnenko is completely blocked off from the upper level of the home, as there is no staircase in her half of the house.

Margareta says she didn’t have time or money to build a second staircase before a team of builders instructed by her husband constructed the grey brick wall.

“Me and my son were having a breakfast when builders came into the house, dragging in blocks of concrete,” she wrote on Facebook.

“A court official came too, armed with a statement saying that I should have built my staircase by now.

“I showed him the earlier court’s decision that gave me more time,” she said.

The couple, who have three children together, split in 2010 and have spent much of the last six years in court against each other.

When the divorce was finalised a court ordered them to split their assets 50/50 between them, but their main asset was the house in Moscow, worth around $3.2 million.

Margareta told Russian media they did not want to sell the house as “the Russian real estate market is in crisis” and they wouldn’t have gotten a good deal for it.

Sergei Tsivtnenko lives in a new apartment with his new wife and rarely uses his side of the Moscow house.

For other divorcees looking for a simple way to split their assets, a Dutch company has designed floating houses that float apart if a couple separates, hopefully preventing bad situations like Margareta’s.