QUESTION:

I work in a large state owned company, my wife runs a private business so my family owns quite a lot of property. I do not want to be named on the property papers, so I’ll let my wife be named on such papers.

I would like to ask, then, is the property still considered jointly of us? My friends say that if I still let my wife be named on the papers, it will be very risky for me later.

ANSWER:

According to clause 1 Article 33 Law on Marriage and Family 2014, common property of husband and wife includes property created by a spouse, incomes generated from labor, production and business activities, yields and profits arising from separate property and other lawful incomes in the marriage period; except the case prescribed in Clause 1, Article 40 of this Law; property jointly inherited by or given to both, and other property agreed upon by husband and wife as common property.

The land use rights obtained by a spouse after marriage shall be common property of husband and wife, unless they are separately inherited by, or given to a spouse or are obtained through transactions made with separate property.

Marriage period means the duration of existence of the husband and wife relation, counting from the date of marriage registration to the date of marriage termination.

According to Article 43 Law on Marriage and Family 2014, separate property of a spouse includes property owned by this person before marriage; property inherited by or given separately to him/her during the marriage period; property divided to him/her as stipulated by Law; property to meet his/her essential needs and other property under his/her ownership as prescribed by law. Property created from separate property of a husband or wife is also property of his/ her own.

Thus, regardless of whether the property is named wife or husband’s name, if the property is an asset formed during the marriage period and there are no grounds to believe that it is a separate property (assets available before marriage, inheritance, private donation …), it is still the common property of husband and wife.

For common property, the husband and the wife have the same rights and obligations as co-ownership; Spouses are equal in terms of their rights and obligations in creating, possessing, using, disposing of common property; There is no distinction between household and income earning.

In case you want your wife to be in the name of the property and identify it as your own property so that the husband no longer relies on that property, the husband can donate the property under his or her ownership to the wife. The husband and wife shall set up an agreement on division of common property in the marriage period in order to determine clearly which property is their own property and which property is common property./.