Last Updated on June 28, 2021 by LawEuro
German Civil Code (BGB) German law
Subchapter 4
Partitioning of the marital property
Section 1471
Beginning of the partitioning
(1) After the termination of the community of property, the spouses partition the marital property.
(2) Until the partitioning, the provisions of section 1419 govern the marital property.
Section 1472
Joint management of the marital property
(1) Until the partitioning, the spouses manage the marital property jointly.
(2) Each spouse may manage the marital property in the same way as before the termination of the community of property until he obtains knowledge of the termination or ought to know. A third party may not rely on this if, when he enters into a transaction, he knows or ought to know that the community of property has ended.
(3) Each spouse is obliged to the other to cooperate in measures that are necessary for the proper management of the marital property; each spouse may take the measures that are necessary for preservation alone.
(4) If the community of property ends as the result of the death of one spouse, the surviving spouse must carry out the transactions that are necessary for proper management and may not be postponed without risk until the heir can make other provision. This duty does not exist if the deceased spouse managed the marital property alone.
Section 1473
Direct substitution
(1) Whatever is acquired on the basis of a right that is part of the marital property or as compensation for the destruction of, damage to or deprivation of an object that is part of the marital property, or is acquired by a legal transaction that relates to the marital property, is marital property.
(2) If a claim that is acquired by legal transaction is part of the marital property, the debtor need not allow this to be asserted against him until he has knowledge that the claim is part of the marital property; the provisions of sections 406 to 408 apply with the necessary modifications.
Section 1474
Implementation of the partitioning
The spouses effect the partitioning, unless they agree otherwise, under sections 1475 to 1481.
Section 1475
Discharge of the marital property obligations
(1) The spouses must first discharge the obligations of the marital property. If an obligation is not yet payable or if it is disputed, the spouses must retain whatever is necessary to discharge this obligation.
(2) If a marital property obligation, as between the spouses, falls on one of the spouses alone, the latter may not require that the obligation be discharged from the marital property.
(3) The marital property must be converted into money, to the extent that this is necessary, in order to discharge the marital property obligations.
Section 1476
Division of the surplus
(1) The surplus that remains after the discharge of the marital property obligations is due to the spouses in equal shares.
(2) Each spouse must allow whatever he is to reimburse to the marital property to be set off against his share. To the extent that he does not make compensation in this way, he remains obliged to the other spouse.
Section 1477
Implementation of the division
(1) The surplus is divided under the provisions on co-ownership.
(2) Each spouse, on repayment of the value, may take the things that are intended exclusively for his personal use, in particular clothes, jewellery and tools. The same applies to the objects which a spouse has brought into the community of property or acquired during the period of community of property as a result of succession, as a legacy or with regard to a future right of succession, by donation or as an advancement.
Section 1478
Partitioning after divorce
(1) Where the marriage has been dissolved by divorce before the partitioning is finished, then at the request of one spouse, each of them must be reimbursed the value of what he brought into the community of property; if the value of the marital property is not sufficient for this, the shortfall is to be borne by the spouses in the proportion of the value of what they brought in.
(2) The following are to be regarded as having been brought in:
1. the objects that belonged to one spouse when the community of property commenced,
2. the objects which a spouse acquired as a result of death or with regard to a future right of succession, by donation or as an advancement, unless the acquisition, in the circumstances, was to be regarded as income,
3. the rights which are extinguished on the death of a spouse or whose acquisition is conditional on the death of a spouse.
(3) The value of the items brought in is assessed according to the date at which they were brought in.
Section 1479
Partitioning after judicial termination decision
Where the community of property is terminated by judicial decision on the basis of sections 1447 and 1448 or of section 1469, the spouse who obtained the judicial decision may require that the partitioning be carried out in such a way as if the claim to partitioning had become pending at court at the time when the action for termination of the community of property was instituted.
Section 1480
Liability to third parties after the division
If the marital property is divided before a marital property obligation has been discharged, the spouse who, at the time of the division, did not have such a liability is also personally liable to the creditor as a joint and several debtor. His liability is limited to the objects allocated to him; the provisions of sections 1990 and 1991 that govern the liability of the heir apply with the necessary modifications.
Section 1481
Liability of the spouses to each other
(1) If the marital property is divided before the discharge of a marital property obligation which, as between the spouses, falls on the marital property, the spouse who managed the marital property alone during the period of community of property is answerable to the other spouse that the other spouse is not claimed on, either for half of the obligation or for the surplus beyond what is obtained from the marital property.
(2) If the spouses managed the marital property jointly during the period of community of property, each spouse is answerable to the other that the other spouse is not claimed on by the creditor for more than half of the obligation.
(3) If the obligation, as between the spouses, falls on one of the spouses, the latter is answerable to the other that the other spouse is not claimed on by the creditor.
Section 1482
Dissolution of marriage by death
If the marriage is dissolved by the death of a spouse, the share of the deceased spouse in the marital property is part of his estate. The succession of the deceased spouse takes place under the general provisions of law.
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