Contract and love

How to conclude a marriage contract in 2021?

The BD can be signed both before the marriage and at any time during the marriage. A document drawn up before the wedding comes into force from the moment of the official marriage in the registry office. The database is drawn up in writing and must be certified by a notary.

There are 3 ways to design a database:

1. Download a ready-made marriage contract form at the end of this article, fill it out, adding some points at your discretion and, after printing it out, visit a notary for registration.
2. Find a lawyer to competently draw up the document, and then visit a notary office to register the database.
3. Come directly to the notary and ask him to draw up such a contract.

The choice of method for concluding a marriage contract depends on the agreement between the future or current spouses. You can get acquainted with the methods of concluding a database by watching the video.

( Video : “Marriage agreement: Methods for registering family property”)

Concept and form of a marriage contract

A prenuptial agreement is an agreement between persons who have decided to get married or spouses who have already entered into marriage. This agreement defines the property rights and obligations of the parties. Both during marriage and at its end. You can draw up a marriage agreement both before the state registration of the marriage, and at any time during the marriage.

If the parties entered into a marriage contract before registering the marriage, it will enter into legal force only from the date of registration of the marriage. After the divorce, the former spouses cannot enter into such an agreement. A property division agreement is suitable for them.

The marriage contract is concluded exclusively in writing. And is subject to notarization. In this case, the notary will not only check the compliance of the marriage contract with the law, but will also explain to the spouses its meaning and significance. To notarize a marriage contract, you must pay a state fee.

Failure to comply with the written notarial form of the marriage contract entails its invalidity.

What documents will be needed

BD is a mutual voluntary legal registration of financial and property relations between spouses, executed in writing by concluding an agreement.

The database does not need state. registration in Rosreestr. To confirm it, you only need notarization.

To register a database at a notary's office, you will need to present the following documents:

1. Spouses' passports.
2. Marriage certificate, if the marriage is officially registered.
3. Title documents for property.
4. Extract from the Unified State Register and other documents confirming ownership of the property.

Only the original documents are presented to the notary.

What should not be included in a prenuptial agreement?

Of course, it is important to know what should be included in the content of a marriage contract. But it is equally important to consider what cannot be established by a prenuptial agreement.

The RF IC clearly establishes a list of conditions that cannot be included in a marriage contract. Thus, a marriage contract cannot:

• contain conditions that contradict the basic principles of family law (Article 1 of the RF IC);
• contain conditions limiting the legal capacity and capacity of spouses;
• contain a ban on going to court to protect one’s rights and interests, including filing a claim in court for the division of jointly acquired property;
• limit the personal non-property rights and freedoms of spouses (for example, a ban on adultery or movement around the country;
• determine the procedure for communicating with children, including rights and responsibilities for their maintenance, upbringing, etc.;
• limit the rights of a disabled spouse to receive maintenance;
• contain conditions that place one spouse in an extremely unfavorable position (for example, a provision such as: the initiator of the divorce transfers his apartment to the other spouse in the event of divorce);
• contain the distribution of household duties (who takes out the trash, etc.)

When concluding a marriage contract, do not forget that it can be declared invalid for all reasons provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Practicing lawyers from Vladey Egko, specialists with many years of experience, will help you take into account all the nuances of drawing up a marriage contract in your specific situation. You can leave a request on our website. They will quickly and correctly determine the content of the marriage contract in order to avoid in the future not only recognition of the contract as invalid, but also misunderstandings between the spouses.

How to draw up a marriage contract in 2021?

Designing a database is a simple process consisting of several stages:

1. Drawing up and signing the database.
2. Presentation of required documents.
3. Arrival at the notary office.
4. Payments for notary services.

Note. When signing a DB, you need to pay attention to the effective date of the contract.

• If a married couple draws up a database while married, then the contract acquires legal status from the moment the document is certified by a notary.
• If the database is issued before the marriage, it receives legal status only after the state registration. registration of marriage at the registry office.

Contents of the marriage contract

There is no approved unified database template.
Therefore, to draw up such an agreement, you can download the form and fill it out, adding points, at the discretion of the married couple. The contents of the database indicate not only the ownership rights to the property of a married couple accumulated during marriage, but also to property acquired before the marriage.

Requirements for the content of the database are regulated by Art. 42 IC RF. In the document, the spouses record the legal ownership of their property, which is displayed in sections. Spouses, when compiling a database, have the right to:

• Distribute the rights and obligations of the parties, methods of accounting for income and their distribution, the order of expenses in the family.
• Dispose of the property that will be divided in the divorce case, and also include in the database other conditions for the division of the property of the spouses.

Note. The database cannot interfere with: the legal capacity of a married couple, the right of spouses to judicial protection of their rights, the regulation of personal relations between them, the content of other conditions that contradict the RF IC.

The database should contain:

1) The title of the document, for example: “Marriage contract”.

2) Place and date of its conclusion.

3) Details of the married couple indicating their full name. and residential addresses.

4) The subject of the agreement is:

• Shared ownership of property acquired during marriage by a married couple.
• Separate property owned by each party acquired before marriage.
• The procedure for distributing jointly acquired property in case of violation of the terms of the DB by one of the parties.

5) The legislator allows the inclusion in the database of any conditions affecting the property rights and obligations of a married couple. At the same time, personal rights do not relate to the subject of the agreement. For example, spouses do not have the right to note household chores in the database. Restrictions on the free movement of spouses, on the choice of location, on the preservation by spouses of the surname established at the time of marriage after the divorce process and other similar conditions are also not allowed.

6) The section “Features of the legal regime...” contains the distribution of property earned or acquired by spouses in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the concluded agreement (for example, an apartment will become joint property, and income, jewelry, movable property and things may remain the personal property of the one who uses them).

7) The “Additional conditions” displays the distribution of property located before the marriage, which was used jointly or by one of the spouses. Here you can prescribe the procedure for returning property used jointly, but belonging to one of the spouses before the marriage. You can also note who will have the property after the breakup of the marital relationship, or upon the birth of a joint child.

Final provisions

• The effective date of the database is noted here.
• It specifies who bears the costs of registering the database.
• The number of compiled copies of the document that are of equal force is also noted.

9) At the end of the document, “Addresses and details of the parties” and the signatures of the database participants are affixed.

How to draw up this document correctly?

If the parties to the marriage decide to write the contract themselves, the basic rules for drawing up this document must be followed in accordance with the requirements of the law. Below you can find out how the contract is drawn up and what is included in it.

Form requirements

According to Art. 40 of the RF IC, a marriage contract is an agreement between the persons entering into marriage, or an agreement between the parties, defining the property rights and obligations of the spouses in the marriage and (or) in the event of its dissolution. Accordingly, the main subject of the agreement will be the property relations between husband and wife.

1. The agreement must be drawn up in writing. Prepare three copies of the document at once.
2. The essence of the contract must be extremely clear and precise.
3. Dates and numbers are written in words.
4. You should indicate the contact details of the parties and full name.
5. In the introductory part of the document you need to indicate its name, time and place of signing, information about the persons who will sign the contract.

There are no strict requirements for the structure of the text. It can be divided into sections if desired.

Is there a single established form in the Russian Federation?

There is no single established model of a marriage agreement in the Russian Federation . The document can be drawn up in any form subject to the basic conditions: written form, notarization and property relations as the subject of the agreement, which can be drawn up here

Requirements for content and essential conditions

What is included in the possible content and what can be stipulated in this contract in the Russian Federation? Lawyers distinguish such a concept as the essential conditions of a marriage contract. These include:

• the subjects of the contract are husband and wife;
• the subject of the agreement (the actual property relations of the subjects: this includes, for example, the property regime).

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Parties

The parties to a marriage contract are married spouses . Also, the subjects of the contract have the right to be the bride and groom planning to get married. A prenuptial agreement can be concluded before entering into a marriage relationship. In this case, according to paragraph 1 of Art. 41 of the RF IC, it comes into force from the date of state registration of marriage.

Item

What is the subject of the contract? This is an important element of the contract, constituting its basic essence. As noted earlier, the subject of a marriage contract can be exclusively the property rights and obligations of the participants in the marriage. In this regard, the main element of coverage of the document is the various aspects of the property relationship between husband and wife.

In turn, a marriage agreement cannot regulate any non-material aspects of the marital relationship. For example, the document cannot include clauses regulating marital fidelity and gender roles in the family.

Rights and obligations of the parties

What can be added to rights and responsibilities? The prenuptial agreement clearly defines the rights and responsibilities of the spouses. These may include:

• general principles of property relations in marriage;
• the principle of distribution of private property of spouses;
• a list of property subject to division during divorce;
• process of regulation of joint expenses.

The contract must spell out in detail the sanctions for the violator : what liability will occur if the terms of the contract are not fulfilled.

Property regime

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 42 of the RF IC, the following property regimes can be established by a marriage contract.

1. Joint ownership. This regime is based on the right of spouses to use any property of their common household. To whom this property is registered does not matter. Property shares are not allocated in this case.
2. Shared ownership. The parties to the marriage decide who owns what share in the common property. Shares can be distributed in different ways (in equal proportions or not). Each spouse has the right to dispose of the allocated share at his own discretion, including selling or donating property. The choice of such a regime frees the parties to the contract from the need to divide property in the event of a divorce.
3. Separate property regime. In this case, the right to own specific property is strictly assigned to each spouse. Conditions are prescribed for each individual property object or for types of objects. The principle of separation is also determined voluntarily. For example, one of the participants in a marriage becomes the sole owner of a car if it is purchased at his expense or issued on credit in his name.

Can a prenuptial agreement be concluded with several conditions? It is permissible to combine different modes. A marriage contract, belonging to the group of civil legal relations, can be concluded under two conditions: suspensive and repealing.

Conditions precedent

Can a marriage contract be concluded with suspensive conditions and what can be included in them? With a suspensive condition, we are talking about the emergence of rights and obligations for one of the spouses, depending on a circumstance that may or may not happen in the future. The conclusion of a marriage contract under a suspensive condition is legal according to Art. 157 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Typically in family practice such conditions are:

• the appearance of children;
• loss of ability to work;
• purchasing real estate on credit.

For example, if a wife purchases real estate on credit, the husband will have the right to own it in proportion to his participation in repaying the loan.

Cancellative

Canceling conditions involve the termination of the rights and obligations of the parties to a marriage agreement when certain circumstances arise. This is a common condition in prenuptial agreements.

It can be perfectly demonstrated using classical examples. In particular, in the event of a divorce, all real estate becomes the property of the spouse only if she did not initiate it; otherwise, all real estate goes to the husband.

other information

What else can be included in the document? The marriage contract can also include information about the rights and obligations regarding mutual maintenance. The parties to the agreement may stipulate completely different terms of mutual content. For example, you can oblige a husband to pay his wife a certain amount after the birth of children until they come of age.

Sample marriage contract in 2021

and sample

• Form, doc
• Sample, doc

The price of drawing up a marriage contract

As noted earlier, you can draw up a database yourself, contact a law firm or directly a notary office.
Law firms and private lawyers set different prices for database design services.

The price may depend on the following factors:

• Difficulties in database design.
• Volume of documents.
• Urgency of order fulfillment.

The more complex the database, the higher the cost of database design services. At the same time, the more detailed the document is developed, the fewer disagreements the spouses will have in the event of divorce proceedings.

The costs of preparing a database will be high if, in addition to document development, a law firm or private lawyer will have to provide additional services. For example, collecting the required documents, organizing an expert assessment of property.

It should be noted that the final cost of services is greatly influenced by the company’s image and the qualifications of its employees. For example, the average cost of database registration services in Moscow ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 rubles.

In addition to the costs of registering the database, you will need to register the database with a notary office.

The cost of notary services is regulated by special provisions.

Thus, database certification consists of the following stages:

1. The standard fee charged for document certification. It is equal to 500 rubles for all notary offices in Moscow and the Russian Federation.
2. The cost of legal and technical services (LCTS) ranges from 2,000 to 10,000 rubles.
3. Price for other notary services.

Legal and technical services include:

• Ensuring that the database is checked for compliance with legal requirements.
• Conducting information checks on spouses who are required to comply with passport data.
• Conducting a check of information about the property displayed in the database for compliance with the presented documents.
• Explaining to a married couple the legal norms regarding traffic safety.
• Familiarizing a married couple with the consequences of registering a database for them.

Other notary services include drafting a database. For such work, drawn up by a notary, you will need to fork out from 5,000 to 20,000 rubles.

If the spouses decide to change the BD, then an additional agreement is drawn up, the form of which is the same as the BD. This service will cost a married couple up to 5,000 rubles.

In addition to changes in the database, spouses can terminate it. In this option, an additional agreement is also drawn up, with a structure similar to that of a database. At the same time, the spouses will also have to pay about 5,000 rubles.

Note. Unilateral rupture of the database by a notary is not allowed. To do this you will need to go to court.

Changing the marriage contract

The database can be changed with the consent of the spouses at any time.
To do this, an additional change agreement is drawn up, the structure of which has the same form as the database. Unilateral refusal to execute the database or unilateral modification of the document is impossible. This can only be done on the basis of a court decision in the manner established by the Civil Code and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

Document structure

As already mentioned, the agreement can only apply to the property relations of the spouses. But we must remember that not a single document can go against modern legislation. Therefore, it is impossible to include clauses that contradict civil legislation (and it is the Civil Code in Russia that regulates all property relations).

What may be included in the contract

The following points may be stipulated in a marriage agreement:

• the procedure for distributing monetary income of each spouse. Income refers to the spouse’s earnings and all bonuses transferred to him, income received from the disposal of property (renting, selling, etc.). The spouses may indicate that all income belongs to the party who is their recipient, or a shared or joint distribution of funds may be established;
• procedure for bearing expenses. This refers to spending money on family needs, for example, purchasing food, clothing or household items, paying utility bills, educational and medical services, keeping pets, etc.;
• procedure for disposing or using property acquired or obtained by other means;
• procedure for disposing and using existing property;
• possibility of mutual content. The norms of the RF IC provide for additional assistance to a disabled or partially able-bodied spouse, in addition to the financial assistance already due to him. Such a condition can be established for both current and former spouses.

The procedure for the use and disposal of property can also be established in the event of a divorce or death of one of the spouses. In the event of death, civil law rules regarding the procedure for inheriting the property of a deceased person will also be involved.

The terms of the agreement in such a case must not contradict the inheritance regime, otherwise the rights of the remaining heirs may be infringed.

An agreement may be concluded under suspensive or disqualifying conditions.

A suspensive condition provides for postponing the fulfillment of the terms of the concluded agreement until a certain date. For example, the contract may indicate that a car that was purchased during marriage and is joint property will become the property of the wife upon the birth of a child.

A cancellation condition means the cancellation of any of the clauses of the contract upon the occurrence of a certain situation or date. For example, joint property (for example, an apartment), acquired over the years of marriage, during a divorce will go to the party that did not contribute to the occurrence of the circumstances that led to the divorce.

The contract may also establish the type of ownership of the property:

• share;
• joint;
• personal.

When establishing a shared type of ownership of property that belongs or will belong to spouses, the parties indicate to whom, what and in what shares the property will belong. For example, the parties agreed that when purchasing a country house, shares would be established in proportion to the amounts contributed by the parties to purchase the house.

The emergence of joint property among a married couple is provided for by the Family Code, however, in the marriage contract it can be discussed which property will be joint. For example, when further purchasing a house, car and garage, the spouses agreed that only the house would be transferred into joint ownership, while the garage and car belonged entirely to one of the spouses.

Personal Property – Establishing full ownership of property acquired before or during marriage. For example, purchased household appliances (plasma TV), in the event of a divorce, will not be the subject of a dispute, since the document states that this TV belongs only to the spouse and the wife does not lay claim to it.

As for the premarital property of the spouses, the type of ownership can also be established for it. Initially, all this property was the personal property of each party, however, upon concluding a marriage and agreement, it can be indicated that the wife’s property, which belonged to her before marriage, becomes joint property, or shared property, indicating the desired shares of each spouse.

But premarital property owned by one of the parties cannot be completely transferred to the ownership of the other party after marriage. In this case, we are talking about a gift agreement, and this is not included in the marriage agreement.

What cannot be included in the contract

The terms of the marriage contract cannot conflict with modern legislation:

• conditions that could lead to a severe disadvantage for one of the parties to the contract. Since the contract deals with property relations, the inclusion of certain conditions due to great attachment and personal dependence may subsequently lead to the emergence of a situation that violates and significantly infringes on the rights of one party;
• conditions affecting the legal capacity or performance of any party. Thus, an agreement cannot establish rules regarding the choice of one of the parties to the agreement regarding the sphere of activity, religion, freedom of movement (Article 26, Article 27, Article 28, Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), the possibility of obtaining professional education, conditions that limited civil, political and other rights of the spouse provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The legal capacity and legal capacity of a person can only be limited by the court;
• conditions limiting a party's right to judicial protection. Restriction of this right is a special case of limitation of legal capacity;
• conditions governing relationships related to raising children. Since a marriage contract can only regulate relations of a property nature, with regard to children, the contract can only take into account the procedure and amount of payment for educational institutions, sections and other material needs. As for the moral side, the contract cannot establish to whom, after the divorce is concluded, the child will go to be raised, since in this situation, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the wishes of the child himself. This issue is resolved between the spouses without drawing up an agreement, taking into account the interests of the child, his attachment to one of the parents, his age and other qualities;
• clauses regarding personal non-property relations of the parties. The prohibition on introducing such provisions lies, firstly, in the impossibility of leading to their enforcement;
• requirements for limiting the disability of one of the parties and receiving maintenance for them. Since we are talking about the vital maintenance of a person, the inclusion of restrictions will lead to the invalidity of such an agreement.

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The inclusion of a term that, according to the law, cannot be included will lead to full or partial invalidation of the agreement.

The rules regarding the completion of a bilateral transaction, provided for by civil law, apply to a marriage contract, therefore all terms of the contract must be of a volitional nature and be included independently and without coercion.

By the claim of one of the parties, a marriage contract that was concluded under the threat of violence, or concluded fraudulently, abusing the trust of the party, will be declared invalid by the court.

Validity

The prenuptial agreement is valid until the end of the marriage. Also, its validity may be terminated in the following cases:

• death of one of the spouses;
• recognition of one of the spouses as incompetent;
• voluntary termination by mutual consent of the parties.

Signature and entry into force

The contract can be signed before marriage , during marriage, or at any time after marriage. To give such an agreement official status, the spouses must sign it personally in the presence of a notary. In three copies.

The contract comes into force after the marriage. For already married couples, the contract begins to be valid from the day it is certified by a notary. Registration of a marriage contract between persons in a so-called civil marriage (cohabitation) is impossible (Article 21 of the RF IC).