Legal question

isabelle13

New member
Mar 8, 2006
158
0
0
If you don't sign a prenup, your assets will be all 50-50 but is it true that only the husband can sell or buy new assets and control the finances?

I am getting a prenup but a friend of mine got married without one.
 

planner

.............. ?
Sep 23, 2002
4,409
26
0
No that is not true. Sounds like a line to maintain control. Run in the opposite direction when you hear this type of crap.
 

isabelle13

New member
Mar 8, 2006
158
0
0
no no they just got married my friend's husband did not say that. Her parents are telling her that she will not be able to have a bank account or buy property in DR if she is married without a prenup
 

planner

.............. ?
Sep 23, 2002
4,409
26
0
Okay thanks for clarifying. Her parents are where then???

It might be they are saying she shouldn't buy property etc without a prenup in place. Without one everything they do will be jointly owned should the marriage dissolve down the road!

Of course she can open bank accounts etc. Yes she can buy property, build a house, open a business. There is really nothing stopping her.
 

AnnaC

Gold
Jan 2, 2002
16,048
418
83
Here's what Mr Guzman ( DR lawyer) wrote;



If you are getting married in the Dominican Republic, the separate property agreement must be prepared by a Dominican Notary BEFORE the marriage (that?s why it?s called a ?prenuptial? agreement) and handed over to the Civil Registry Officer (?Oficial de Estado Civil?) at the marriage.
I am assuming that you?ll want the agreement to be enforceable in the Dominican Republic. If you don?t care about this but are only interested in its validity in your home country, then you?ll have to consult an attorney from home.

The prenuptial agreement is as simple or as complicated as the future spouses want it to be. A straight separation agreement is a very simple document. It will state in legal terms that whatever a spouse acquired before or during marriage will belong to him/her exclusively and that assets in a spouse?s name belong to that spouse exclusively.

If the spouses do not sign a prenuptial, their assets are governed by the community-property provisions of the Civil Code (Articles 1400 to 1496). Spouses are 50-50 owners of all matrimonial assets. These assets consist of the following:

1) All moveable properties (in essence, everything but real estate) belonging to either spouse at the time of the marriage or acquired by either of them during marriage, even by inheritance or gift unless the testator or donor has expressed otherwise.

2) All income from properties belonging exclusively for whatever reason to either spouse.

3) All immovable properties (real estate) acquired by either spouse during marriage.

To translate this into simple terms, without a ?prenup,? whatever money, stocks, bonds, vehicles, credits, etc. (everything but real estate) you may have on the day of the marriage, is split 50-50 with your spouse when you say ?yes, I do?. If your parents leave you $1,000,000 in their will and they do not expressly or implicitly state that this is for you alone, and not for your spouse, then your spouse will get 50%. (Fifteen years ago, I actually dealt with a case like this involving an American couple living in the DR).

You may ask why this is so. The answer is that we are, I believe, the only country in the world still governed by the original provisions of the Napoleonic Code, which dates from 1804, a time when wealth was almost exclusively ?immovable?, i.e., real estate, and therefore it was not considered of importance that all ?moveables? be part of the matrimonial community. In France, the code was amended a long time ago to include only properties acquired during marriage as community property.
 

isabelle13

New member
Mar 8, 2006
158
0
0
the parents are in Canada. I guess they think he will control everything. I wish she would have gotten a prenup (I will) but I don't want her panicking over losing complete control of everything if she does not need to.

Thanks Anna, she knew about the asset being divided 50-50 but she got scared about the other stuff