Family Law and Matrimonial Property Regimes
Core concepts
A candidate must distinguish the primary regime (mutual duties, contribution to household expenses, protection of the family home) from the patrimonial regime chosen by the spouses. The default legal regime is the community of acquests (communauté d'acquets), which distinguishes own property (pre-marital, gifts, inheritances) from common acquests (income, acquisitions during marriage). Understand recompenses between the own and common estates, the valuation date, and the liquidation process. Know separation of property, universal community, and the possibility of modifying the regime during marriage before a notary with judicial homologation in certain cases.
Traps
- Qualification errors: income from own property is generally common in the community regime; the asset itself remains own. Questions exploit this split.
- Recompenses: the common estate owes the own estate when it paid a debt of the own estate; compute at the liquidation date, not the payment date.
- Family home protection: acts disposing of the family home require spousal consent; omission is sanctioned, and questions test the exact scope.
- Change of regime: requires notarial deed and, where creditors are affected, publicity and homologation.
- Cohabitants: legal cohabitation is not marriage; property consequences differ sharply, and questions test the presumption of co-ownership.
Rule of thumb
For any liquidation scenario, draw three columns - own estate A, own estate B, common estate - and post every asset and debt to the correct column before computing recompenses. Then apply the sharing rule. Doing the qualification first prevents most errors.
Worked example: A spouse inherits a house and rents it out. Under the community regime, the house is own property; the rents are common acquests. If common funds paid the inheritance tax on the house, the common estate holds a recompense against the own estate, valued at liquidation.