Registering rights derived from acts between a married person and a third party

How the registration in favor of a married person would be done? Would any interested party be able to know by checking the land registry information any restriction in the powers of the owner derived from the matrimonial property regime?

The Land registry reflects the clauses of notary deeds. Everybody has access to the Land Registry in order to view matrimonial property agreements and property transfer agreements. Consequently, information about the status of immovable assets between spouses is public: such status may imply certain restrictions in the power of one of the spouses in case of transfer of such assets.

What will the Land Registry demand from a married proprietor to register the transmission or any modification of his/her registered title?

The Land registry takes into account notary deeds reflecting such transmission and/or modification.

Practical case 1

Janos, who is married to Elena under a matrimonial economic regime of community of joint assets, buys an immovable property. He signs the deed of transfer before a local notary, acting solely and on his own, without any intervention of his wife Maria. The deed of transfer is sent to the Registry for registration.

The registration at the Land registry reflects the clauses of the notary deed, which clarifies the marital status of Janos and the nature of the matrimonial property regime between the spouses. If the matrimonial regime is under foreign law, this is also specified in the notary deed. If Janos performs a disposition act, the notary in charge will do all necessary investigations at the “Bureau des hypothèques” (Land registry) by consulting the previous notary deed transferring the property to Janos. Based on these investigations, the notary has to decide whether Janos has the legal power to perform the disposition act. The situation in case of partners will be different as far as there is no matrimonial property regime between them.

Practical case 2

Pierre is married to Michelle and although the matrimonial property regime established by the applicable law is a joint community one, the same law allows the spouses to modify that legal regime adopting a different one which is the property separation of assets regime, for which purpose they both sign a matrimonial property agreement modifying their matrimonial community property regime into a separation of assets one.

When Michelle buys the right of usufruct on an immovable asset, she appears on her own in the contract of sale and the transfer deed and she wants that the registration to be made in such a manner that no restriction or limitation derived from her marriage appear in the registry.

The contract of sale has to take the form of a notary deed submitted to registration. The registration will reflect the content of the notary deed. Therefore, no further documents are requires. Any modification to the legal matrimonial regime has to be accomplished by notary deed: such a deed will be submitted to the Land Registry. The situation in case of partners will be different as far as there is no matrimonial property regime.