It is often more complicated and more expensive to separate when you are not married. Because the law does not regulate the modalities of separation of de facto couples, even if they are in a civil union, and even less so its economic consequences. On the contrary, marriage appears, at the time of separation, to be the most protective status for the vast majority of couples who are united without a marriage contract.
Applied by default, the property regime reduced to acquisitions makes it possible to compensate for inequalities in income and distribution of expenses within the couple by redistributing the cards a posteriori. All assets of the spouses are therefore presumed to be common, except those that belonged to the spouses before the marriage and those received during the marriage by gift and inheritance.
Therefore, all assets acquired during the marriage are common, even if they were financed by only one of the spouses, and also all the income received by both, including those from their own assets: rents, dividends, etc. The rule is the same for financial products (bank accounts, savings accounts, securities accounts, stock savings plans, life insurance, employee savings, etc.), even if they are in the name of only one spouse. Half of the accumulated savings belongs to each person.
At the time of divorce, each person is entitled to half of the common property and recovers their own property. Hence the interest in keeping records of everything: account statements, purchase documents, etc. – have as precise an idea as possible of the extent of the common assets and be able to identify separate assets. It’s all about testing…
Spouse consent
This is not a particular problem for own goods that have been resold for the purchase of other goods, if a reuse clause appears in the purchase deed. It is best to ensure this in every transaction. It is certainly possible to repair the oversight after the fact, but… with the consent of the spouse. And divorce is not necessarily the right time to get it. “I had sold a studio that my father had given me when I was a student, to buy our main residence. At the time of the divorce I had the unpleasant surprise of discovering that the notary had not mentioned it in the purchase deed. “My ex-husband did not want to know and I was never able to recover the amount in question.”Isabelle testifies that she wishes to remain anonymous.
Things become even more complicated in the case of sums of money deposited in a bank account, for example those received by donation during the marriage. “It is not enough to deposit them in a personal account. So that the husband can recover them, there must have been no movement on this account or you must be able to trace every movement. “Then it will be a recovery of funds.” explains Marielle Trinquet, a lawyer specializing in family law in Paris.
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