If you buy a flat when your married, does your spouse own 50%?

[ohchk2001]

I have a question,

If you buy a flat when you are married, and only your name is on the tittle, does your spouse own 50%? My guess is yes, because from what I understand in HK unless there is a prenup assets are divided 50%. I would like other opinions on this.

Edit: Ugh I said your instead of you're in the thread title.

[PDLM]

No she doesn't.

What happens to your estate when you die or get divorced can only be determined then, and it depends on all sorts of things, such as your domicile (for death), where you get divorced, the location of your assets, any will, any children, and so on. But while you're alive and stay married only you own it.

[ohchk2001]

What about in cases of divorce or things of that nature? This is entirely hypothetical of course, everything is fine with my marriage. I just want to have a clear understanding of this.

[PDLM]

It depends on a whole heap of factors, including how long you've been married, who brought what into the marriage, who earned what while you were married, were there kids, who brought them up, why are you getting divorced, and all sorts of stuff. There isn't an easy answer.

Some starter info on the process: http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/crt_s...df/divorce.pdf

There's info on Mediation here: Court Services & Facilities

And a quite useful page here: The Hong Kong Family Law Association

The key law (Cap.192) is here: http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_i...*0*192.1#192.1
and says, amongst much else, basically that the court can overall any pre-nups.

[ohchk2001]

and says, amongst much else, basically that the court can overall any pre-nups.

Overall? Do you mean over rule?

Anyways thanks for the assistance. I am going to speak to a lawyer about drafting some sort of trust agreement so the property is evenly split 50/50 without my spouse's name being placed on the title.

In the US this would be called a "living trust" and is a form of asset protection.

Just to clarify, my spouse does NOT want her name placed on the title. We planned to form a corporation and placing it on the title, but obtaining a mortgage was much more difficult. So for now it's just me on the title and we agreed that after the property is paid off we'll move to to a corporation.

I want something more firm setup before then since I was under the impression that all assets were pretty much 50/50 when people are married.

[PDLM]

Overall? Do you mean over rule?

Yes, sorry. Too much reliance on spell checkers, not enough on brain.

[Renotommy]

Overall? Do you mean over rule?

Anyways thanks for the assistance. I am going to speak to a lawyer about drafting some sort of trust agreement so the property is evenly split 50/50 without my spouse's name being placed on the title.

In the US this would be called a "living trust" and is a form of asset protection.

Just to clarify, my spouse does NOT want her name placed on the title. We planned to form a corporation and placing it on the title, but obtaining a mortgage was much more difficult. So for now it's just me on the title and we agreed that after the property is paid off we'll move to to a corporation.

I want something more firm setup before then since I was under the impression that all assets were pretty much 50/50 when people are married.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Living Trust" is the best to go. We have had it for over 10 years. I don't know about forming a corporation after paying off your mortgage. Is that for tax purposes only? Calif. has the Community Property law; I wonder if HK is different.

Be sure to get all the estate matters straighten out because my partner's parents' estate took 5 years in the Probate Court to get settled.....not to mention the hard feelings among family members and the tens of thousands of dollars wasted on attorneys.

[shilo507]

What about in cases of divorce or things of that nature? This is entirely hypothetical of course, everything is fine with my marriage. I just want to have a clear understanding of this.

Even if your spouse is not on the title deeds, if your spouse consults a solicitor about divorce (or you serve notice on your spouse that you wish to divorce them) the first thing your spouse's solicitor will do is to make an application under the Matrimonial Causes Ordinance (Cap 179) (or Act 1973 in the UK) to prevent a sale of the property by you. This will be to protect your spouse's interest in the property. This will happen regardless of which name is on the title deeds or who pays the mortgage etc or if a pre-nuptial agreement is in place.

If you have children at the time of divorce (who are still under 18) the effect of any pre-nuptial agreement can be greatly reduced. If your spouse has no income or a lower income than you and remains the primary carer of the children you may be ordered by the Court to sign over the former matrimonial home to your ex-spouse and ordered to keep up any mortgage payments on the property or payments for loans or charges secured on the property until the youngest child of the marriage reaches the age of 18 or leaves full time education (whichever happens sooner).

In such circumstances, the Court will normally put in place what is called a Mesher Order to prohibit sale of the former matrimonial home until a future trigger point in time (youngest child reaching 18 etc or remarriage of the lower earning spouse).

This effectively means that one party of the marriage will be deprived of capital for potentially many years and a deal would be struck where the stronger party financially will receive X % of the sale proceeds at a later date (the exact % split may be subject to legal wranglings) but is normally between 30 - 50%. If at the lower end of the scale you can usually negotiate keeping a higher proportion of other marital assets such as a pension, savings, stock options etc in a process known as offsetting. In big money cases these amounts can be substantial and such cases some times takes years to be settled by the Courts or, more usually by consent and/or Mediation. In reaching a settlement the Court will have regard to the financial position of both parties, their ages and future earnings potential

In a nutshell, even if you have a pre-nup and your spouse is not on the mortgage/title deeds their interest in the marital property will be heavily protected.

I would just add that if you are ordered by the Court to maintain mortgage payments on a property which is the subject of a Mesher Order you can normally offset this against any additional spousal support (alimony) you are ordered to pay. However, child support remains payable.

[shilo507]

I would also add that the above applies even if you had purchased a property before meeting or marrying your spouse. Once you marry and live together in the property your spouse's interest in that property will be protected under the Matrimonial Causes Ordinance. However, the Court would look at the length of the marriage etc. Once you have children their best interest will become the priority of the Court and providing a home for them will be the Court's main concern.

[Oldtimer]

" So for now it's just me on the title and we agreed that after the property is paid off we'll move to to a corporation".

It will be very expensive to transfer the property to a Corporation at a later date. The stamp duty and other cost will be approximately 3-4 % of the prevailing price at the time of the transfer.