Marriage changes everything including the property relationship. Here are the basic rules on the effect of marriage to property relationship:
-the spouse cannot sell, donate, lease, mortgage or exchnage properties to each other;
-in the case of pre-nuptial agreement where the spouses' properties are separated, either spouse is not allowed to donate more than one-fifth of this or her property to the other spouse;
-when a property is donated, given or inherited via gratuitous act to either spouse within their marriage, the receiving spouse reserves the right to own the property exclusively.
-if there was a pre-nuptial agreement, the terms and conditions within that pre-nuptial agreement shall apply;
-special cases such as local customs and traditions, may also be applied.
Conjugal Property
-when property is acquire before the husband got married, the property shall be exclusively his;
-when property is acquired before the wife got married, the property will be exclusively hers;
-marriage joins exclusive properties as part of one estate within the conjugal property and the fruits of those properties shall be shared between the husband and wife for the duration of their marriage;
-in the event the husband and wife file for divorce, annulment or legal separation, the husband's exclusive property, acquired before the marriage and all its fruits shall not be included in the conjugal property and will be exclusively owned by him; the same theory applies to the exclusive property of the wife;
-when the spouses filed for separation of properties in court, the properties that the husband and the wife acquired during their marriage will be considered part of their conjugal property and this will be split in half between the wife and the husband.
Absolute Community Of Property
-when all properties are acquired by the spouses before their marriage and all properties acquired during their marriage, it will be considered as part of one whole estate of the absolute community of property, which is owned by both parties;
-when all properties are inherited, donated or given gratuitously to either of the spouse before their marriage shall be considered as part of the absolute community of property upon marriage, and shall be owned by both parties;
-in the event of divorce, annulment or legal separation, the regime of absolute community of property shall not be affected and will remain owned by both spouses, unless the spouses have filed for judicial separate of properties;
-in case the spouses filed Judicial Separation of Properties, the properties within the Absolute Community of Properties shall be split between the husband and the wife.
