“You can’t forget to collect” – expenses for repairing your spouse’s apartment after a divorce

What does Russian legislation say?

In the Family Code of the Russian Federation, namely in Art. No. 38, the provisions on how the division of spouses’ property occurs upon divorce are clearly stated.

Key points:

Married couples can share their property during the marriage, as well as after its termination, if one of the spouses so requests. This can also happen if creditors make demands for the division of common property.
With the help of an agreement, spouses can divide jointly acquired property. Notarization of such an agreement is required.
Disputes regarding the division of common property are considered in court. The judicial authority, upon the application of one of the spouses, determines the shares of the property that will go to each of the couple. If one of the spouses is allocated property whose price is greater than the share due to him, then the other party to the dispute may be awarded monetary or other compensation.
The court has the right to decide that the property that was acquired by the husband and wife during their separation at the end of the marriage relationship is the personal property of each spouse.
You cannot share household items purchased for children's needs. They are transferred to the person with whom the minor children will live. In this case, you should not count on compensation. The same applies to contributions made by husband and wife from the common property of the married couple in the name of joint children under 18 years of age. The deposits belong to the students; they are not taken into account when dividing the common property of the spouses.
If, when dividing common belongings during the marriage relationship, any part of this property was not divided, then it will subsequently be classified as joint property.
In Russia, the statute of limitations for spouses who have divorced and are making demands for the division of common property is a three-year period.

Overhauling an apartment during marriage can change the order of division of property in a divorce

Question from Klerk.Ru reader Olga (Moscow)

The municipal apartment, inherited from my husband's parents during marriage, was privatized in my husband's name; he gave me 1/2 of it. A major renovation of the housing was then carried out. Can I apply for the allocation of a spousal share in his 1/2 part of the apartment, in connection with a divorce and division of property. We have been married for 20 years.

According to paragraph 1 of Art. 36 of the RF IC, the property of each of the spouses includes property that belonged to each of the spouses before marriage, as well as property received by one of the spouses during marriage as a gift, by inheritance or through other gratuitous transactions (the property of each of the spouses) is his property. Thus, if the apartment was inherited by your spouse, and ½ of the share was given to you, therefore, each of you has the right of ownership to the specified apartment.

In accordance with Art. 37 of the RF IC, the property of each of the spouses can be recognized as their joint property if it is established that during the marriage, investments were made at the expense of the common property of the spouses or the property of each of the spouses or the labor of one of the spouses, significantly increasing the value of this property (major repairs, reconstruction, re-equipment and others).

It follows from this norm that if major repairs of the entire apartment were carried out at the expense of common property, then this property will be recognized as joint property and will be subject to division according to the general rule specified in Article 39 of the RF IC: when dividing the common property of spouses and determining shares In this property, the shares of the spouses are recognized as equal, unless otherwise provided by the agreement between the spouses.

The court has the right to deviate from the beginning of equality of shares of spouses in their common property based on the interests of minor children and (or) based on the noteworthy interests of one of the spouses, in particular, in cases where the other spouse did not receive income for unjustified reasons or spent the common property of the spouses to the detriment of the interests of the family. When dividing the common property of the spouses, the common debts of the spouses are distributed between the spouses in proportion to the shares awarded to them.

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Compensation for repairs after divorce

A common situation that arises in a divorce is when one spouse has made improvements to real estate, such as a house or apartment. For example, one spouse may use the money to upgrade the roof of the family home or add a garage. The main question is usually whether the spouse can be reimbursed for the costs of the improvements. To determine who is entitled to compensation for improvements,

The following factors must be taken into account:

whether the conversion was made of one's own property or property belonging to another party;
who owned the property rights - one spouse or both before transformations were made that increased the value of the apartment or house;
whose funds were used for improvements - personal or joint.

Advice: find a good family lawyer and get a consultation to understand all the nuances of Russian laws, find out what property is subject to division, because if one of the spouses contributed his personal money to improve the property of the other spouse, he may be entitled to compensation.

Split the cost of apartment renovation after divorce

Lawyer: Vladimir Krasnikov

How to avoid being left in debt after a divorce?

If after a divorce you have shared housing, it is better to divide it: exchange an apartment or resolve the issue of monetary compensation.

Having something in common with a stranger is dangerous not only because of repair compensation. If the apartment is already undergoing renovation, it will be difficult to claim such compensation. Although replacement of windows, doors or pipes in the bathroom will have to be reimbursed, even if you cannot get into the apartment at all.

It is much worse if the second owner defaults on the loan or causes harm to someone. For example, it will flood the neighbors. The bailiffs will come and inventory all the property in the apartment. You will have to prove who actually paid for the TV, expensive monoblock and kitchen set. And the neighbors will sue both owners for compensation.

It is even more dangerous not to formalize a divorce if you do not live together. Then you will have to divide not only property, but also debts.

Collect documents always and for everything.

Receive mail: you may be notified about renovations, the sale of a share, or the release from the apartment. If you did not receive the letter, this does not mean that you were not notified.

If in any doubt, contact a lawyer. Don’t wait for the smell of fry and a mother with many children or a family of migrants who suddenly become the owners of 1/30 in the apartment to come to your apartment.

If the co-owners own a small share, go to court and demand that they sell it to you. So it is possible.

Enter into a prenuptial agreement, even if you are not thinking about divorce. But this also needs to be done with a cool head, because sometimes housing is lost precisely because of the marriage contract.

The ex-wife will pay for the renovation of the apartment, which was done after the divorce

In 2006, the couple bought a one-room apartment in a new building. They paid 500 thousand rubles. After 8 years they divorced without waiting for the house to be completed. The right to an apartment was divided equally through the court.

When the house was finally rented out, the ex-husband and wife became the owners of a common apartment - each had ½. The apartment was unfinished, and in order to move in, the man started renovations. I spent 715 thousand rubles on it. I had just finished decorating when my ex-wife showed up. I want to move into the apartment, give me the keys, and the renovations are so good here, it’s nice to look at. And although the man did not let her into the apartment where he already lived with his new family, she registered there - the owner.

The man demanded to pay for half of the repairs. And also compensate for utility costs. But he began to demand this in court, because his ex-wife was not going to give him 450 thousand rubles.

Construction site overlooking the divorce

The essence of the issue was that on paper the dimensions of the house were the same, but in reality they were completely different, ten times larger. Nobody deceived anyone, it was just that over the years of married life the family completed and rebuilt their house. So he changed and grew in size.

Agree, such a situation is not at all uncommon. But in our case, when the question of dividing jointly acquired property arose, the local courts stumbled on this question: which meters of the house should be divided between the spouses - those indicated in the documents, or those existing in reality?

The Supreme Court answered this difficult question.

So, in one of the rural areas of Bashkiria, a husband and wife filed for divorce, and then for division of property.

But in court it turned out that sharing their common house is difficult. According to the documents, ownership was registered only for one third of the divisible house. But the part of it that was completed later was never formalized by the wife as it should be. And after the divorce they went to share the entire house in which they lived.

The first instance decided that it was necessary to divide only what was available on paper, so the husband should receive most of the house. The appeal did not agree with this decision and divided the entire existing house in half. The Supreme Court explained how it was necessary to act correctly in this case.

Everything that is jointly built by the spouses needs to be completed correctly and on time.

The story began in the late nineties, when a local resident bought a poor house in the village and received permission from the local authorities to demolish it and build a normal house for permanent living on the site of the ruins. A plot was attached to the house, and the new owner registered it as a lifelong inheritable possession. And he built a new house on the site.

And most importantly, he got married. Now the man owned the land, legally registered during the marriage. The house has increased significantly in size. An extension with a summer cafe was also added to the house.

Sixteen years passed and the marriage broke up. The spouses filed for divorce in the magistrate's court, and began to divide the property later, in civil proceedings. An expert's opinion was brought to the court that over the years of marriage the house had become larger than on paper, and accordingly its value had increased by more than a million rubles.

The first instance concluded that part of the house - the size of the property purchased before marriage - belongs to the personal property of the spouse, like the plot. But the court decided to divide the ownership of the registered completed square meters in proportion: 63/100 - to the husband, and 37/100 - to the wife.

The appeal - the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan - overturned this section and made a different decision. She divided the entire house in half along with the extension. In explaining this step, the appeal stated that the property of each spouse can be considered their joint property if it has significantly improved during the marriage. This is exactly what Article 37 of the Family Code says. Dissatisfied with this division, the former spouse went further and further to challenge this decision. And the Supreme Court did not agree with the conclusions of the appeal.

Here are the explanations of the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court. The court explained that the man built part of the house before marriage, so this part is his personal property. In addition, according to the Supreme Court, in such cases it is necessary to take into account the amount of personal funds that each spouse invested in improving the property.

The Supreme Court also drew the attention of its colleagues to what it considered an important fact: in this dispute, neither party asked the courts to divide the extensions to the house between them.

In general, domestic judicial practice shows that very often in such cases it is very difficult to distinguish between personal and jointly acquired property. The hottest and longest debates arise precisely when solving such a problem. Therefore, according to experts, in such legal disputes it is necessary to pay attention to this aspect in advance.

In order not to find yourself in a similar difficult situation, experts advise, it is important to document everything collected, earned, received and built not only correctly, but also on time. And this is right, and this should be done even without regard to the possibility of spoiling the relationship someday in the future.

It can also be difficult to provide evidence that confirms which spouse owns the money spent on improving the joint property. It is necessary to find documents that will confirm the ownership of the money spent on repairs or reconstruction. In our case - at home.

In addition, in similar disputes, it is important, when registering a newly emerged property and registering it with the BTI, to keep records of the component parts of the object and the date of their origin.

In general, the Supreme Court issued the following verdict - to cancel the appeal decision and send the case for a new trial to the Supreme Court of Bashkiria.