“Relationships = formalities?” — Tatiana Tereshchenko’s note

The State Duma refused to equalize official marriage and de facto marital relations. Therefore, if there is a stamp the passport all property is common, if no - everything belongs to one for whom it is registered even if expenses were common. Sad story (

The State Duma rejected the draft which was proposed to give official status to «actual marital relations». The reason was not only the absence of clear criteria. The Duma committees suggested that firstly the possibility of applying family and civil legislation to actual marital relations could become one of the reasons for the termination of relations and secondly such regulation does not solve the problems of protecting maternity and childhood and does not contribute to strengthening the social bases of society.

This position is puzzling. Rhetoric on strengthening the bases of society has nothing to do with the real needs that arise in the property turnover. It turns out if the stamp is in the passport then by presumption everything is common. If there is no such stamp then all belong to one to whom the property is registered, even if the expenses were common.

In practice, it is difficult to prove the personal belonging of money and the property acquired on them. Since so far few people conduct "home accounting" and take care of the availability of written evidence of money flow.

The position of the State Duma actually turns a stamp in a passport almost to the only proof of the conduct of a common household for the purpose of solving the fate of property-personal or common, in what size and for what the marital share arises. This issue is especially acute in inheriting and bankruptcy proceedings.

So far, the enforceability of the marriage agreements and property sharing agreements are linked to a registered marriage according to the the Family Code. Relying on the principle of freedom of contract, of course, one can prove that any agreement, similar in content, between persons whose relations are not "stamped" by the registry office is also possible. However, the conservatism of judicial practice suggests that it would be better if this kind of issue was resolved at the legislative level.

The legislator is not strong in legal techniques, when it comes to complex issues. But not try to solve when around the world such issues are solved in this or that way (and therefore there is an experience), is strange.