Divide Sole Property Owned by Couple
2020/2/13
In
case where the two parties involved in the divorce lawsuit have only
one property to live in, and this property is also in nature the
couple’s joint assets, and neither party has the capability to
compensate the other, can the court decide for each party to have 1/2 of
the ownership of this property after divorce?
Such
verdict is not appropriate. One property one ownership is the basic
principle of property law. When it is impossible to register for
separate ownerships, to give verdict for two ownerships over one
property clearly violates legal regulations. As the nature of this real
estate is the couple’s joint assets, if it is not divided in divorce
lawsuit, then the couple will still be in a joint ownership in reality.
Joint ownership by the couple is a typical joint ownership. In general,
the couple’s joint assets are divided 50/50. Therefore, if the verdict
is to divide the ownership 50/50, then the assets are only pronounced to
be owned by share by the couple from being jointly owned by the couple
in reality. This can’t solve the problem of living arrangement the
couple faces after divorce. As for ownership by share, there is still
the problem of who in reality controls and uses the real estate. If the
parties involved can solve the problem through their own consultation,
then the court does not need to give any ruling; when the two parties
cannot solve the problem through consultation and do not have the basis
for join ownership, people’s court’s ruling for ownership by share could
potentially create new conflicts. Therefore, we think that, under the
above mentioned circumstances, to rule the jointly-owned real estate to
be owned by share after divorce is not a good way to divide the couple’s
assets in divorce cases and should not be adopted in general.