Marriage without contract: community regime reduced to vests

Verified 27 April 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Do you want to get married without signing a marriage contract? In this case, your property will automatically be subject to the legal regime of the community reduced to the acquired. Property you own before marriage remains your personal property. Your heritage consists of own and common assets. At the end of the marriage, the common goods are shared. You can change matrimonial regime under certain conditions. We present you the information to know.

It's a matrimonial regime.

If you marry without marriage contract, you are automatically subject to the community system reduced to accruals.

We are also talking about legal community.

FYI  

You have no no formalities to be completed in order to benefit from this scheme.

In the community reduced to achievements, the enrichment of one of you also benefits the other.

In return, the risks taken by one of you (debts) may weigh on you 2.

The community reduced to acquired property distinguishes the following:

  • Property belonging to all 2 of you, each for half: we talk about common goods
  • Property belonging only to one of you 2: we are talking about own property.

All property is presumed to be common, unless proven otherwise.

Your accruals, i.e. goods furniture or real estate acquired by you 2, together or separately, for payment (also said for consideration) during your marriage, are common goods.

Such common property may be acquired by any of the following means:

  • Income from your work (regardless of the activity carried out)
  • Savings on income from property owned by one of you 2.

The following are common goods (non-exhaustive list):

  • Wages and professional income (including severance pay or retirement pay)
  • Retirement pensions
  • Game winnings
  • Savings and investment income.

You stay sole owner of certain goods. We are talking about clean goods.

The following goods are own goods:

  • Good furniture or real estate which one of you 2 owns before the wedding
  • Well received by donation or succession (inheritance or bequests by will) by only one of you 2 during the marriage (unless the testator or donor).

Other items also constitute own property, including:

  • Personal clothing
  • Some receivables and pensions, such as maintenance or invalidity
  • Compensation for bodily injury or moral injury suffered by one of you 2
  • Some professional property necessary for the activity of one of you.

The property you buy during the marriage, with money from an estate or the sale of a property of your own, is also a property of your own.

The origin of the money must be declared in the deed of purchase.

Common goods

For the common goods, each of you 2 can perform alone the acts of administration and the acts of disposition.

However, your agreement to all 2 is necessary in certain cases, including the following:

  • Sale, donation or provision of security (e.g. mortgage) on a building you belong to all 2
  • Lease of a rural land or a building for commercial, industrial or craft use.

Earnings and wages

Each of you 2 manages and disposes of his earnings and wages alone.

This rule applies regardless of the matrimonial regime spouses, provided that each person pays his or her share of the marriage expenses,

If you are married without a contract, your earnings and wages are considered common property.

Property acquired with earnings and wages is common, as is money saved by a spouse.

This rule can have consequences, for example in the event of separation or if one spouse wants to give away property without the consent of the other spouse.

In case of difficulty, you can take advice from a professional, especially a notary.

Who shall I contact

Each of you manages and disposes alone of its own property.

None of you 2 can have your family home alone.

If your family home is a clean property, the owner cannot dispose of it alone.

To sell it, he must get the agreement of the other spouse.

This rule also applies to the furniture that decorates the family home.

FYI  

This protection applies to your principal residenceShe's not playing for a second home.

The obligation to repay debts varies depending on whether the property is common or unique to a single spouse.

In order to preserve some of your own assets from creditors' demands, it is up to you to prove that you are the sole owner.

The rules depend on the debts incurred.

Debts subscribed for household maintenance and education of children

Each of you 2 must contribute to the costs of marriage, according to your respective faculties.

All debts that one of you 2 takes on engage all 2 of you jointly and severally if they relate to any of the following obligations:

  • Housekeeping
  • Education of children.

We are also talking about household debts.

The following expenses shall be considered as household maintenance or education expenses of children (list no exhaustive):

  • Power Supply
  • Rents and expenses of family housing
  • Water and electricity bills
  • Healthcare costs
  • Children's clothing and school fees
  • Salary of a domestic worker
  • Childcare costs.

The creditor can claim payment of the debt from you or your spouse.

He can seize your common goods as your own.

Warning  

If one of you 2 alone makes manifestly excessive expenditure in relation to your household income, he alone is committed. In this case, the creditor may seize common property. But he cannot seize the other spouse's salary or property.

Tax debts

As a husband, you form one tax home and you are subject to joint taxation.

You are solidarity at the tax level, it's a common debt.

Solidarity applies for the following taxes:

So you have to pay together the tax due.

In the absence of payment, the tax authority may claim the tax indiscriminately from either of you 2.

Debts born before marriage

The debts that one of you had before the wedding remain personal debts.

This is the case for the capital due, but also for the interest.

Borrowing and buying with payment over time

If you subscribe alone a loan or purchase with payment over time, you only commit your own property and income.

If your husband gives his consent on purpose, you also commit your common goods. Your spouse's own property remains protected.

Warning  

The loan that you take out for a modest amount necessary for the needs of everyday life hire all 2 of you. This is also the case for several loans whose cumulative amount is not excessive given your lifestyle.

It all depends on your situation:

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Only one of you is posting bail

Your husband gives his express consent to your commitment

Commitment as bail valid for the one of you 2 who subscribes it.

If you commit yourself, you commit your own assets and your income.

If your husband gives his consent on purpose to your commitment as a guarantor, the commitment also covers your common property.

Your spouse does not give express consent to your engagement

Commitment as bail valid for the one of you 2 who subscribes it.

If you commit yourself, you commit only your own property and your income.

You're guarantor every two

If you commit all 2 as collateral for the same debt, all your possessions, clean and common, are committed.

Common assets shall be shared in particular in the following cases:

Please note

The community of property also ceases in the event of a change in matrimonial property regime.

We're talking about liquidation of the community.

The liquidation of the community is done in several stages:

  1. Inventory of each spouse's own property and common property
  2. Inventory of personal and common debts
  3. Rewards between the community and the property of each spouse
  4. Resumption the property of each spouse
  5. Community sharing (property sharing and debt sharing) by half.

Please note

In the event of the death of a spouse, the liquidation of the community precedes the succession. This includes the deceased's own property and half of the common property.

Any good being presumed common, it is your responsibility to bring the proof of your own property (invoices, notarial deeds, etc.)

Proof can also be used to prove that you used equity to acquire a common property (for example, if you used money from an estate to finance part of the purchase of your family home).

FYI  

The intervention of a notary is mandatory in the presence of real estate.

You can freely change or modify your marital regime.

You must comply with the following conditions:

  • Recourse to a notary
  • Respect for the interests of the family
  • Information of interested persons (including your adult children, your creditors).

Your plan change is subject to the approval of a court only in the event of an objection by one of the following persons:

You must be assisted by a lawyer.

The lawyer presents a query to the judicial court of the place of residence of the family, to your 2 names, to which is attached a copy of the notarial deed.

Who shall I contact

Please note

The change or modification of the matrimonial property regime is mentioned in the margin of the marriage certificate.

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