Question 1

Which regime applies without a marriage contract?

Accepted Answer

Failing a marriage contract, the spouses are subject to the statutory regime, commonly called the community of acquisitions, founded on three estates: the separate property of each and the common estate. Professional income and the fruits of separate property are common; property owned before the marriage and property received during the marriage by inheritance or gift remain separate. On dissolution of the regime, after payment of the common debts and settlement of the compensations, any remaining balance is divided in half.

Since 1 July 2022 these rules are no longer in the former Civil Code but in book 2, title 3 of the Civil Code, on the property relations of couples. Article 2.3.12 sets out the principle that, failing particular agreements, the rules of the legal regime constitute the general law, and the legal regime takes effect on the celebration of the marriage, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary.

Article 2.3.16 states its structure: the legal regime rests on **three estates**, namely the separate estate of each spouse and the estate common to both.

Separate are the property and claims belonging to each spouse on the day of the marriage, and those acquired thereafter by inheritance or gift. Common are each spouse's professional income, the compensation standing in its place and **the fruits, income and interest of separate property**. The rent from an inherited flat thus falls into the common estate, even though the flat itself remains separate.

Question 2

What other regimes are possible?

Accepted Answer

Separation of property (each keeps own assets) or universal community (everything is common).

Both regimes are defined in the Civil Code, and each leaves room to be shaped.

Under separation of property, article 2.3.61 states that each spouse alone has the powers of administration, enjoyment and disposal over their property. But that regime can be shaped: spouses may graft onto it a **participation in acquisitions clause** (article 2.3.65), which restores an accounting between their estates on dissolution, the participation claim then resulting from a comparison of each spouse's acquisitions.

On the community side, article 2.3.53 allows spouses to agree that all or part of their present and future property, movable or immovable, will form part of the common estate: it is this contribution mechanism that produces an extended, even universal, community. Article 2.3.52 nonetheless sets a limit: spouses who have adopted a community regime may not depart from the legal regime as regards the management of the separate and common estates.

Question 3

Can the matrimonial property regime be changed?

Accepted Answer

Yes, by notarial deed, with both spouses' agreement.

Moving from one regime to another does not automatically reclassify what is already separate or already common: to bring separate property into the common estate, a **contribution** is required, which article 2.3.53 expressly organises by marriage contract. Without that step, the property remains what it was.

The spouses' freedom is, moreover, subject to limits. Article 2.3.52 prohibits those who have adopted a community regime from derogating from the rules of the legal regime concerning the **management** of the estates, and article 2.3.12 recalls that the legal regime applies from the celebration of the marriage where no choice was made beforehand, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary.

Question 4

How to liquidate the regime at divorce?

Accepted Answer

Inventory of assets, classification common/own, valuation, division. Often by notarial deed.

Between valuation and division come further operations, which the Civil Code sets in order.

Article 2.3.48 sets the order in which common debts are paid, which is the **settlement of liabilities**. Next comes the **settlement of compensations**: article 2.3.49 provides that a spouse still owing a compensation settles it either by receiving less or by paying into the estate to be divided, while a spouse entitled to a compensation takes from the estate to be divided property of equal value.

Only after these operations does the division itself take place, which article 2.3.50 calls **net division**: any positive balance is divided in half. The same article adds that common debts remaining after the division are still owed, and that, failing a contrary agreement, the costs of liquidation and division are shared equally between the spouses.

Question 5

What is a compensation?

Accepted Answer

Indemnity due between estates (e.g. own money invested in common asset).

The mechanism works both ways, and the Civil Code defines it broadly. Under article 2.3.44, each spouse owes compensation for what they took from the common estate to pay a separate debt and, more broadly, **whenever they have derived personal benefit from the common estate**. Separate money invested in common property gives rise, conversely, to compensation in favour of the separate estate.

The same article covers a particular situation, relevant to the self-employed: a spouse practising their profession within a company whose shares are their separate property owes compensation to the common estate for the net professional income that the common estate failed to receive but could reasonably have received, had the profession not been practised within that company.

Compensation is not settled by a separate transfer: it is liquidated at the time of division, by drawing from the estate or by taking less, in accordance with article 2.3.49. Failing agreement between the spouses on which assets are drawn, the dispute is decided within the liquidation and division procedure.

Matrimonial property regime in Brussels

Matrimonial property regimes: managing marital assets

How is the matrimonial property regime determined?

The statutory regime — community of acquisitions

The separation of property regime

The universal community regime

Common assets (statutory regime)

Assets

Liabilities

Management of common assets

Each spouse's own assets

Assets

Management of own assets

Dissolution of the matrimonial property regime

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Asset division

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