Cohabitation in family relationships is not prohibited by law. Actual marital relations. Civil marriage, definition

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MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. A bill has been submitted to the State Duma proposing to introduce into the Family Code of the Russian Federation the concept of “actual marital relations”, which, in essence, equates unregistered relations between a man and a woman with an official marriage after five years of cohabitation of the couple with all the ensuing legal consequences.

“A de facto marriage relationship is a union of a man and a woman, not registered in the established manner, living together and leading a common household. The signs of a de facto marriage relationship are: cohabitation for five years; cohabitation for two years and the presence of a common child (common children)" , - follows from the text of the bill available to TASS.

According to the initiative, in the presence of one of the above circumstances, the union of a man and a woman receives the status of a de facto marital relationship and entails the rights and obligations of the spouses provided for by family and civil law.

“According to the Ministry of Labor, 2016 was the year with the minimum number of officially registered marriages in the Russian Federation over the past 20 years. Also, like in most foreign countries, our compatriots do not consider a stamp in their passport a necessary condition for creating a full-fledged family. Moreover, how Recent surveys have shown that Russians do not even separate the concept of unregistered marriage and official marriage. However, from the point of view of the law, so-called cohabitation is not recognized and does not give rise to any legal consequences, which puts members of such a union in a very vulnerable position,” notes the author of the initiative, Senator Anton Belyakov. .

He believes that the institution of de facto marriage relations should be recognized by the state and subject to a certain degree of protection, as is the case in foreign countries, for example in Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, France and Germany. As a first step towards legitimizing such relations, the senator proposes to extend the “legal regime of marital property” to property acquired during the period of cohabitation.

“This means that if a man and woman have not entered into an agreement, then all property acquired by them during the period of cohabitation will be recognized as their joint property. Men and women in de facto marital relations will be subject to the same requirements as persons planning to register a marriage: they must reach marriageable age, not be in another marriage and not be close relatives,” the parliamentarian said.

The Russian Federation has introduced a bill which, if adopted, will introduce a legislative definition of civil marriage. In the document, this union of two people will be noted as a “de facto marital relationship.” They are proposed to be considered “a union of a man and a woman living together and leading a common household, not registered in the established manner.” However, this term will only apply if the couple has lived together for five years without children, or for two years, but they have a child together. How to classify couples who have lived outside of marriage for 4 years and 11 months, as well as how to formalize the breakup of such relationships, is not specified in the document.

There is no requirement to sign any papers for “civil” unions; the term “actual marital relationship” will begin to be applied “retroactively” when the spouses separate, if property disputes arise.

In this case, all the property acquired by them during the period of cohabitation will be recognized as their joint property - unless, of course, a marriage contract was concluded dividing all the values in some other proportions.

According to existing legislation, a couple living in an unregistered marriage can also divide property. However, this requires proof of the fact of running a joint household, for example, through the testimony of relatives, friends, neighbors, and providing some kind of documentary evidence of long-term cohabitation. In courts, there are often controversial cases when estranged “common-law” husband and wife jointly paid, for example, a loan for a car, while the debt remains with the person who took out the loan, who is also recognized as the owner of the car.

The bill is designed to remove this contradiction, the author of the document, a member, told Gazeta.Ru. If the document is accepted, then the same requirements will apply to cohabitants as to those who intend to enter into an official marriage. Spouses must be of marriageable age, not be in another marriage and not be close relatives. In terms of rights and responsibilities, cohabitants will also be equal to “official” spouses: currently the Family Code does not provide for this, although the rights of children born in marriage do not differ from the rights of children born out of wedlock. Moreover, the latter, in a sense, have even more rights: in the event of the death of one of the parents, the second, whose marriage was not registered, has no rights to inheritance by law, and the children, accordingly, are entitled to a larger share. At the same time, according to current Russian legislation, a number of legal issues between official spouses are resolved much easier than between “civil partners”. For example, children born in an official marriage are automatically recognized by their parents. When an official marriage breaks down, all jointly acquired property is divided into two equal parts (unless otherwise stated in the marriage contract).

While married, neither the husband nor the wife can make a transaction with real estate or other expensive property without the consent of the second family member. When selling common property of cohabitants, the consent of the “common-law” spouse is, of course, not required - the main expression of the will of the one in whose name this property is registered. In this regard, a situation may arise that one of the members of a civil union will arbitrarily sell the common property, and the second person will not be able to prevent him from doing so. This is especially dangerous in cases where one of the cohabitants suffers from alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling addiction and does not control their spending.

The legal spouse is the heir of the first priority of all property of the deceased husband or wife. Whereas in the event of the death of a cohabitant, the “common-law” spouse does not have the right to priority inheritance by law, regardless of how many years they lived together and whether they have common children.

Also, in the event of the death of a spouse, the husband or wife has the right to receive unpaid wages, sick leave, vacation pay, pensions, scholarships, benefits or alimony. In addition, in the event of the death of a spouse due to a work accident or occupational disease, the family is compensated for that person's lost earnings, as well as expenses associated with the employee's death. A “common-law” spouse does not have such rights.

“Common-law” husbands and wives do not have the right to visit their spouse in intensive care, unless a power of attorney has been issued in advance. Due to the lack of a stamp in the passport, other important decisions regarding the health and life of a loved one cannot be made, including the decision to turn off life support devices. Among other things, the status of a husband or wife can somewhat improve a person’s situation if he has become involved in a criminal case. Article 51 of the Constitution states that no one is obliged to testify against his or her spouse. Accordingly, in court, the official husband or wife may refuse to give any testimony. A “common-law” spouse does not have such rights. In addition, the internal regulations of pre-trial detention centers state that “the administration is obliged to provide the suspect or accused with a meeting with her husband (wife).” The cohabitant also does not have the right to a meeting.

What is your evidence

The idea was approved by many religious leaders. For example, Hieromonk Dimitry (Pershin), an expert at the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs and an expert on the Committee on Family Issues, noted that “the measure, according to the authors, is designed to force cohabitants to become husbands, and cohabitants to become wives, to return their children to a family.” “If we talk about the social and legal dimension, it has its own logic. This is a forced response to the growing moral degradation of our society as a whole. The number of registered marriages is decreasing every year. Men are infantile, have a consumeristic attitude towards their closest and dearest people, and are afraid to take responsibility for their fate. And the hardest thing is for mothers and children born in such cohabitation. But if moral norms stop working, legal norms take their place,” his words are reported.

However, many experts were skeptical about the legislative initiative. “I believe that we have a Family Code, which clearly states what marriage is. We have a law on civil status acts, which clearly states: in order to be considered as getting married, you need to submit an application to the registry office and register. Everything else is all sorts of fiction,” said the head of the State Duma’s specialized committee on family, women and children. The head of the Federation Council commission for improving the Family Code even called the bill “sabotage.” In her opinion, “marriage, family and divorce cannot be treated so lightly,” and the law “will weaken the institution of marriage and family” and will be “a blow to the stability of the state,” RBC quotes her.

Lawyer of the Karabanov and Partners chamber Alena Adler believes that if the bill on de facto marriage is nevertheless adopted, then it will not resolve property disputes between its parties in the event of the collapse of such a union. “We have not developed a mechanism for checking how and what a family does, whether they actually live together or not, especially whether they have a joint household or property. Try to prove in court that the spouses entered into a fictitious marriage. This is almost impossible for us.

And in many European countries, various government agencies get into the bedside tables of spouses and partners and almost into their beds; this practice has long been established there,” the lawyer said.

According to her, the new legislative initiative will bring more problems than good. “I understand that its authors probably wanted to protect the woman first and foremost. But we must not forget that according to the law, in a property dispute, both parties can file a counterclaim. And it may turn out that a woman will spend money on a lawyer, spend a lot of time in court, and ultimately lose the dispute. The practice of such disputes will take a long time and be difficult, especially the practice of providing and collecting evidence that the property of such partners was acquired by them jointly,” Adler explained. She emphasized that the most reliable way to protect yourself from possible problems associated with the division of property during the breakdown of a relationship is marriage and drawing up a marriage contract for it. “Otherwise, we will end up toughening situations related to conflicts between ex-spouses over a joint mortgage loan and the apartment that was purchased with this loan,” the lawyer is sure.

I can't bear to get married

According to the Ministry of Labor, 2016 was the year with the minimum number of officially registered marriages in the Russian Federation over the past 20 years. Just like in most foreign countries, our compatriots do not consider a stamp in their passport a necessary condition for creating a full-fledged family. Moreover, as recent surveys have shown, Russians do not even distinguish between the concepts of unregistered marriage and official marriage.

According to him, every second marriage in the Russian Federation breaks up, but this is also not a phenomenon of today. “That is, there are no big changes in the stability of marriages. Another thing is that the risk of divorce remains high - one of the highest in the world. We have been in the top five countries since the 1970s,” Zakharov said. He also noted that now often the first marriage among Russians follows pregnancy and the birth of a child, and not vice versa. At the same time, people often no longer officially register a second union after a divorce. According to statistics, there are now about 85% of “civil marriages”, both parties of which were previously officially married.

A leading researcher at the Institute of Sociology believes that the decrease in the desire to enter into an official marriage and the increase in the popularity of civil relationships in Russia is associated with a similar global trend.

“Now the norms of family and sexual relations are changing rapidly. In the West, this happened in the 1950-60s, this is the so-called “sexual revolution”. Now it has also ended for us, we have approached the West according to the norms of social relations.

This concerns, first of all, young people. The norm has taken root in the minds of young people that marriage is the result of long-term cohabitation, while in their youth people should, as they believe, try a lot, and only when a certain age comes, the need for certain sexual relationships disappears, then the relationship can be formalized . Therefore, traditional marriages are often considered too complex and too binding for the participants in the union,” the scientist argues.

He noted that a significant part of the relationships between young men and women today are short-lived, and therefore they do not want to face the complex divorce procedure. “It is difficult to do something about this; this is the dominant change in the mass mood of modern youth. No new laws will add or subtract anything - young people will live as they see fit and adapt the laws to themselves, and not follow them,” Byzov concluded.

Nothing personal, just a partnership

The legislation of some countries of the world provides for the so-called civil partnership, when people who do not want or are unable to get married nevertheless receive a significant share of the rights of full-fledged spouses. Initially, in many European countries this institution was created to protect the interests of homosexual couples when they were prohibited from entering into ordinary marriages. However, then opposite-sex couples who, for one reason or another, did not want to get married began to enter into civil unions: for example, in France, according to data for 2010, this figure was 96% of all couples who entered into a partnership.

However, in a number of countries of the Old World, people of different sexes cannot enter into civil partnerships; they can only enter into official marriage. This situation is observed, for example, in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and Croatia.

The rules for joining a civil union vary depending on the country. For example, in Italy, where the relevant law came into force only in 2017, mayors of communes received the right to formalize civil partnerships, and members of civil unions are allowed to take the partner’s surname. At the same time, members of civil unions are treated like spouses when testifying in court: they now have the right not to testify against each other.

In Estonia, such unions can be concluded by both hetero- and homosexual couples; they are registered with a notary. This union allows its parties to share property and credit obligations, as well as regulate obligations to care for each other, including after termination of the contract, and inheritance relations. When concluding a “cohabitation agreement,” both partners must have reached the age of majority, and at least one of them must reside in Estonia. A civil partnership agreement is not permitted if at least one of the parties is legally married or in a similar union.

Photo nastroy.net

A bill has been submitted to the State Duma proposing to introduce into the Family Code of the Russian Federation the concept of “actual marital relations”, which, in essence, equates unregistered relations between a man and a woman with an official marriage after five years of cohabitation of the couple with all the ensuing legal consequences, writes Znak.com with link to the document.

“Actual marital relations are a union of a man and a woman living together and leading a common household, not registered in the established manner. The signs of a de facto marital relationship are: living together for five years; living together for two years and having a common child(ren),” follows from the text of the bill.

According to the initiative, in the presence of one of the above circumstances, the union of a man and a woman receives the status of an actual marriage relationship and entails the rights and obligations of the spouses provided for by family and civil law.

“According to the Ministry of Labor, 2016 was the year with the minimum number of officially registered marriages in the Russian Federation over the past 20 years. Just like in most foreign countries, our compatriots do not consider a stamp in their passport a necessary condition for creating a full-fledged family. Moreover, as recent surveys have shown, Russians do not even distinguish between the concepts of unregistered marriage and official marriage. However, from the point of view of the law, so-called cohabitation is not recognized and does not give rise to any legal consequences, which puts members of such a union in a very vulnerable position,” notes the author of the initiative, Senator Anton Belyakov.

“This means that if a man and a woman have not entered into an agreement, then all property acquired by them during the period of cohabitation will be recognized as their joint property. “Men and women in de facto marital relationships will be subject to the same requirements as those planning to register a marriage: they must reach marriageable age, not be in another marriage and not be close relatives,” the parliamentarian said.

(click to open)

Civil marriage in the Family Code of the Russian Federation in 2019

Based on a survey among one hundred thousand Russian citizens, it was revealed that almost 50% of young people under 25 do not want to officially register their marriage: about 40% of those surveyed.

Thus, in order to stop the threatening trend, deputies took the initiative to amend the country’s legislation, as a result of which in the Family Code of the Russian Federation in 2019 it could acquire all the signs of marriage and receive the status of a registered marriage.

Civil marriage, definition

To begin with, let’s define a civil marriage, then consider the moment of division of joint property.

Division of property in a civil marriage

Joint property

Division of unregistered property of an informal married couple

If what was purchased by cohabitants is not recorded as common property, dividing it may not be easy, especially if the issue cannot be resolved amicably. In this case, only an appeal to the courts with a claim for recognition of the right of common shared ownership and division into shares will help; on the allocation of a share from the common property.

To confirm in court the fact of running a joint household and purchasing property, you need to prepare the following evidence:

cohabitation (timing, seriousness of intentions); maintaining a joint household (joint budget - joint income and expenses);
joint purchase of property (confirmation of purchase, calculation of total income and expenses at the bank when receiving a loan, or a letter of guarantee from one partner to the other, payment documents confirming the repayment of debt by both participants);
purchasing things together (indicating the cost and share of both participants). A positive resolution of the problem of division of property depends on whether the participants in the process are able to convince the court of their contribution to the purchase. Based on judicial practice, the division of property between cohabitants is not a simple matter and, often, a dead end.

If a couple does not want to officially register with the registry office, then they should think about documentary evidence of participation in common ownership: receipts for each common purchase; signing agreements on common ownership; registration of the purchased property into common shared ownership; saving checks, receipts, statements.