Why is a prenuptial agreement necessary?
Many of you will consider the prenuptial agreement as a borrowing of foreign practice. Maybe, but as this practice shows, a prenuptial agreement helps to avoid troubles and lengthy litigation in a divorce with the division of property, payment of alimony, and many other issues. Those who once, twice or thrice went through the unpleasant procedures of the divorce process do not need to explain the need for a marriage contract, but for those who are planning to connect their lives with another person for the first time - to legalize marriage - let's just say, despite all your confidence in the second half , a prenuptial agreement will not make your relationship worse, but if such a relationship cracks, that is, a divorce, you can go through it with the least property losses.
Note that only a correctly drawn up, in terms of legal nuances, marriage contract can serve as a guarantee of your property rights in a divorce.
We offer you assistance in drawing up a marriage contract.
According to Ukrainian legislation, you can conclude a prenuptial agreement both before marriage registration (comes into force on the day of marriage registration), and being in a registered marriage (comes into force on the day of its notarization).
What governs a prenuptial agreement
A marriage contract regulates property relations between spouses, spouses as parents, and also determines their property rights and obligations.
A prenuptial agreement usually specifies:
- legal regime of property
- rules for using housing
- right to content
Right to property
At your request, we will include in the marriage contract provisions on the legal regime of property that you transfer for use for the general needs of the family, as well as the legal regime of property donated to you, spouses, in connection with the registration of marriage.
We may also include a clause in the contract under which property acquired by you during your marriage will be considered common shared property or personal private property of each spouse.
The marriage contract also indicates the procedure for dividing property, including in the event of divorce, the use of property belonging to spouses or one of the spouses to meet the needs of children, as well as other persons, as well as any other conditions regarding the legal regime of property, if they do not contradict moral foundations of society.
Rules for the use of housing, real estate
There are frequent cases when, in connection with the conclusion of marriage, one of the spouses moves into a dwelling that belongs to the second of the spouses. In this case, we would recommend that the procedure for using housing be prescribed in the marriage contract, since in practice there are frequent cases when, after a divorce, one of the spouses, in addition to not wanting to move out of such housing, also claims to part of it. For example, in the event of a dissolution of a marriage, the spouse who moved into it must vacate the premises with or without monetary compensation. Also, the agreement can indicate the agreement of the parties (spouses) on living in a residential area that belongs to one of the spouses or is the common property of the spouses, their relatives.
Right to Content
The right to maintenance is one of the most important clauses of the marriage contract. You can ensure that you provide for your other spouse after a divorce, regardless of disability or need for financial assistance. Such a need very often arises for one of the spouses who was engaged in raising children and did not devote time at all to earnings and personal career growth, but in the event of a divorce, he may be left without a livelihood, that is, without work, without a breadwinner, and with children whom needs to be contained. Otherwise, the spouses, by mutual agreement, may provide in the contract a clause according to which the possibility of terminating the right to retain one of the spouses in connection with the receipt of property (monetary) compensation by him will be established.
In a number of cases, the advantage of a marriage contract is the fact that in the event that one of the spouses fails to fulfill its obligations under the contract, for example, non-payment of alimony in the amount and terms established by the marriage contract, alimony can be collected on the basis of a notary's executive inscription, without the need to go to court.
People were brought up in different families, and this allowed them to form their own individual approach to family and marriage. Sometimes already at the stage of negotiating a marriage contract, the spouses have different views on many of its points, which they had not even thought about before.
A prenuptial agreement is not only a guarantee of your property rights in the event of divorce and marriage, but also a good test of the “strength of the relationship” before marriage. And our function, as lawyers, is to act as an arbitrator, who will explain all the legal issues and help consolidate the legally agreed will of the spouses, find a compromise on some issues and take into account the interests of both spouses, as well as their future children.
What should not be included in a prenuptial agreement
At the same time, we note that not all relationships fall under the regulation of a marriage contract.
A marriage contract cannot:
- regulate the personal relationship of spouses
- regulate personal relationships between spouses and children
- diminish the rights of the child
- put one of the spouses in an extremely disadvantageous financial position
- transfer to the ownership of one of the spouses real estate and other property, the right to which is subject to state registration
The spouses may change the terms of the marriage contract, waive the marriage contract (in this case, at the choice of the spouses, the rights and obligations established by the marriage contract terminate from the moment it is concluded or on the day the notary submits an application for renunciation of it). But a unilateral change in the terms of a marriage contract or a unilateral renunciation of a marriage contract is not allowed.
If you find yourself in a situation where your spouse refuses to amend the marriage contract, then we will help you legally change the marriage contract if your interests, the interests of your children, as well as disabled adult daughters, sons require it.
In case of impossibility to fulfill the marriage contract, we will also help you to terminate the contract in court or to recognize the marriage contract as invalid if there are grounds for that.
