Marriage contract – not planning fo a divorce, but a support for marriage
Before or after
A marriage contract is an agreement of spouses establishing their property rights and duties during the marriage as well as after dissolution of the marriage or separation. A marriage contract must be notarized, it may be amended only with permission of a court, at the same time a marriage contract should be registered in the Marriage Contracts Register kept by the Central Hypothec Authority.
A marriage contract is an agreement of spouses establishing their property rights and duties during the marriage as well as after dissolution of the marriage or separation.
There are several ways to regulate property relations of spouses – before or after the wedding. A premrital agreement comes into force from the moment of registration of the marriage.
In a marriage contract spouses may determine if the property acquired both before the wedding and in marriage will be in personal, common or joint shared ownership of the spouses. In a marriage contract spouses may establish legal regimen of both existing or future property, duties connected with disposition of the property, ways and procedure of payment of support or of division of property and other issues.
Speaking about regulation of property relations of a couple one should also mention partnership agreements under which people regulate issues of division of commonly acquired and used property after they don‘t live together any more.
More and more
A marriage contract and its amendments may be used in respect of third parties only if the contract and its amendments are registered in the Marriage Contracts Register. A senior councellor or the Central Hypothec Authority Arnoldas Tomasevicius states that the number of registered marriage contracts grows every year: „The opinion that it is a sign of distrust or planned divorce still exists. Although the number of people who understand that this is just a normal regulation of property relations of two people allowing to avoid a lot of mistunderstandings is growing in Lithuania.“
In 2014 1250 marriage contracts were registered in the country. 337 of them are premarital, the rest of them were concluded by married couples.
In 2014 1250 marriage contracts were registered in the country. 337 of them are premarital, the rest of them were concluded by married couples. Most often spouses aged 31 – 40 decide to regulate property relations of a couple, but couples belonging to the age group 21 – 30 do not fall far behind.
How can one get information?
One can order and receive data from the Marriage Contracts Register personally at the Central Hypothec Authority or by filing a written request with a chosen office of this authoriy. One may also order information about registers by interney through the system of distribution of such registers kept by the Central Hypothec Authority.
Physical persons who are users of electronic banking services once a calendar year may receive information from the Marriage Contract Register about themselves free of charge on the web site of the portal Electronic Government Gates – the electrinic service „Getting familiarized with proceeded personal data in the Hypothec Register, Testaments, Property Seizures, Contracts and Marriage Contracts Registers once a year free of charge“. The information is provided only about effective marriage contracts.