Chapter 3. Community of property (Section 1415 – 1421)

Last Updated on June 28, 2021 by LawEuro

German Civil Code (BGB) German law

Chapter 3
Community of property

Subchapter 1
General provisions

Section 1415
Agreement by marriage contract

If the spouses, by marriage contract, agree on community of property, the following provisions apply.

Section 1416
Marital property

(1) The property of the husband and the property of the wife, as a result of community of property, become the joint property of both spouses (marital property). The marital property also includes the property that the husband or the wife acquires during the period of community of property.

(2) The individual objects become joint property; it is not necessary to transfer them by legal transaction.

(3) If a right that is registered in the Land Register or may be registered in the Land Register becomes marital property, each spouse may require the other to cooperate in correcting the Land Register. Similar provisions apply if a right that is registered in the ship register or in the ship construction register becomes marital property.

Section 1417
Separate property

(1) The separate property is excluded from the marital property.

(2) Separate property is the objects that may not be transferred by legal transaction.

(3) Each spouse manages his separate property independently. He manages it for the account of the marital property.

Section 1418
Reserved property

(1) The reserved property is excluded from the marital property.

(2) Reserved property is the objects

1. that by marriage contract are declared the reserved property of a spouse,

2. that a spouse acquires as a result of death or that are given to him by a third party free of charge, if the testator specified by testamentary disposition or the third party specified when making the disposition that the acquisition is to be reserved property,

3. that a spouse acquires on the basis of a right that is part of his reserved property or as compensation for the destruction of, damage to or removal of an object that is part of the reserved property or by a legal transaction that relates to the reserved property.

(3) Each spouse manages his reserved property independently. He manages it for own account.

(4) If assets are part of the reserved property, this is effective against third parties only under section 1412.

Section 1419
Joint ownership

(1) A spouse may not dispose of his share of the marital property and of the individual objects that are part of the marital property; he is not entitled to demand partition.

(2) The debtor may set off against a claim that is part of the marital property only a claim whose discharge he is entitled to demand from the marital property.

Section 1420
Use for maintenance

The income that falls within the marital property is to be used for the maintenance of the family before the income that falls within the reserved property, and the capital of the marital property is to be used for the maintenance of the family before the capital of the reserved property or the separate property.

Section 1421
Management of the marital property

In the marriage contract in which they agree on community of property, the spouses should specify whether the marital property is managed by the husband or by the wife or by both of them jointly. If the marriage contract contains no provision on this, the spouses manage the marital property jointly.

Table of contents (German Civil Code)

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