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Couples Married After 1974

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My wife and I have been married for nearly 40 years. I want to make an agreement regarding our property as I have suspicions about her having an affair and want to protect myself. Is this still possible if we have been married so long, and do we have to get court approval ?

Property Rights Coupled Married Before 1974
Yes, a married couple can make a property relations agreement regardless of when they got married. It must, however, receive court authorisation to be valid. Although the Spouses’ Property Relations’ Act of 1973 only came into force on 1.1.74, the requirement of court authorisation also applies to couples marrying before that time who made a property relations agreement after the act was effective.
These points were stressed by the Supreme Court in 1977 which held that a husband who had married before 1974 could not enforce parts of a divorce agreement relating to property which had been drawn up after 1974 because they had not received court authorsiation. This was vital; a court had to identify the parties and be satisfied that they had signed the agreement relating to property of their own free will, after understanding its contents and implications, it held.

I married in 1980 and want to divorce but my husband is trying to prevent this because he does not want me to get anything from his business, which he started up immediately after we got married. I think he may even try to transfer property owned by his business into his brother’s name to avoid me getting it. What are my rights and what can I do ?

Property Rights Couples Married After 1974

Firstly, a couple who married after 1974, when the Spouses’ Property Relations Act came into force, are bound by the principles of equalization or balancing it introduced. Basically, the act defines which property is common property and which is individual property. Assuming that the couple never made any legal agreement governing property, then all the common property acquired during the course of their marriage is to be balanced out them. Anything individually owned before the marriage, or inherited or received as a gift at any time remains personal property.

Thus a business which was established during the marriage and which developed throughout this period is joint property, even if it is run by the husband and registered in his sole name. Thus, the wife has rights in the business.

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