Responsibilities of Spouses that Evolve from the Common Joint Property

Abstract

Problem setting and topicality. One of the priorities of the development of the institution of family law legal control is the legislative regulation of spouses’ property relations. The Family Code of Ukraine (the FC ofUkraine) establishes two types of property relations of spouses that are based on: 1) the personal private property of spouses (ch. 7 of the FC); 2) the common joint property of spouses (ch. 8 of the FC).

Analysis of the recent research and publications. As to the civil law literature the problems of common property were scrutinized by: I. V. Zhylinkova, A. Yerukh, O. S. Prostybozhenko and others, but unfortunately the problems of the conclusion of contracts by one spouse without the consent of the other concerning common property remains unconsidered in the literature.

Thus, the purpose of the article is the analysis of the spouses’ responsibilities arising on the common joint property and the ability / disability of the conclusion of contracts on common property of one of the spouses.

The main research material. Property acquisition during the marriage creates a presumption of the common joint property right. It is believed that if the property was acquired during the marriage, it is common. According to art. 51 of the Constitution of Ukraine each spouse has equal rights and responsibilities in the marriage and in the family. It follows from the terms of reference that rights and responsibilities of spouses regarding the property that will be acquired in marriage are equal.

The FC determines one more option. According to art. 74 of the FC, if a woman and a man live as one family, but they are not married to each other or they are not in any other marriage, the property acquired during their cohabitation belongs to them by the right of the common joint property, unless other right isn’t determined between them by the written agreement. Terms of reference of art. 8 of the FC apply to the property that is the object of the common joint property of a woman and a man who are not married to each other or who are not in any other marriage.

Thus, in this article responsibilities both of the persons who are in a registered marriage and the persons living as one family but not married to each other are analyzed.

Conclusions. Thus, art. 65 of the FC reveals problems concerning disposition of the property that is the object of the common joint property, and as a rule during the conclusion of contracts requires a written consent of the spouse who is not a party of the contract, so that in the future there would not be questions on the occasion of who must meet the engagements taken upon oneself and, respectively, at the expense of whose (common or private) funds.