Division of spouses’ property after divorce

Extracts for legal literacy News

The civil legislation of the Donetsk People’s Republic defines such a type of property as the common property of spouses.

The common property of the spouses is the property acquired by the spouses during marriage, unless a different regime of this property is established by the marriage contract between them (Part 1 of Article 317 of the DPR Civil Code).

However, the property that belonged to each of the spouses before marriage, as well as received by one of the spouses during marriage as a gift or by way of inheritance, is exclusively his/her property.

Personal items (clothes, shoes, etc.), with the exception of jewelry and other luxury items, although acquired during marriage at the expense of the spouses’ common funds, are recognized as the property of the spouse who used them (Part 2 of Article 317 of the DPR Civil Code).

In most cases, upon dissolution of the marriage, the spouses resort to the division of the common property. The DPR Civil Code states that the rules for defining shares of spouses in the common property during its division and the procedure for such division are established by family law (Part 2 of Article 317 of the DPR Civil Code).

Article 38 of the DPR Family Code establishes that the division of the spouses’ common property can be carried out both during the marriage and after its dissolution at the request of one of the spouses in the common property of the spouses.

In addition, the common spouses’ property can be divided between the spouses by their agreement. The agreement on the division of the common property acquired by the spouses during the marriage must be notarized.

In the event of a dispute, the division of the spouses’ common property, as well as the determination of the spouses’ shares in this property, shall be carried out in a judicial proceeding.

When dividing the common property of the spouses, the court, at the request of the spouses, determines which property is subject to transfer to each of the spouses. In the case that property is transferred to one of the spouses, the value of which exceeds the share due to him/her, the other spouse may be awarded appropriate monetary or other compensation.

The court may recognize the property acquired by each of the spouses during the period of their separation upon termination of family relations as the property of each of them.

Separately, it is worth paying attention to the fact that things acquired exclusively to meet the needs of minor children (clothes, shoes, school and sports supplies, musical instruments, children’s library and others) are not subject to division and are transferred without compensation to the spouse with whom children live.

Contributions made by spouses at the expense of the spouses’ common property in the name of their common minor children are considered to belong to these children and are not taken into account when dividing the spouses’ common property.

Also, in the case of division of the spouses’ common property during the marriage, that part of the spouses’ common property that was not divided, as well as the property acquired by the spouses during the marriage in the future, constitutes their joint property.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that a three-year limitation period applies to the requirements of the spouses for the division of the common property of the spouses whose marriage has been dissolved.

Thus, when applying to the judicial authorities with a claim for the division of the common property, it is necessary to remember about the three-year limitation period for such claims.

We again draw the attention of residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic to the fact that from 01.07.2021 the Civil Procedure Code of the Donetsk People’s Republic comes into force (in more detail this news can be accessed at the link: http://ombudsmandnr.ru/novyj-poryadok-grazhdanskogo-i-arbitrazhnogo-sudoproizvodstva/).