Saturday 13 August 2011

Home comfort for divorcees’ folks

Mainlanders whose parents buy them property when they marry will keep it if they divorce

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Guanyu said...

Home comfort for divorcees’ folks

Mainlanders whose parents buy them property when they marry will keep it if they divorce

Ivan Zhai
13 August 2011

Under a controversial mainland court ruling taking effect today, a person whose parents buy property for them after they get married will retain sole ownership in the event of divorce.

The Supreme People’s Court yesterday released a judicial interpretation of the Marriage Law that clarifies many grey areas, including how divorcees should divide their property when a marriage ends. The interpretation came as it was announced that the divorce rate had risen for the eighth year in a row.

The ruling is intended to address a common situation on the mainland, where many young couples rely on their parents to buy them a home when they marry. Parents dutifully oblige, even though many fear their life savings will be shared by their child’s spouse if the marriage doesn’t work out.

In cases where the parents of both partners contribute to the property, they are encouraged to negotiate how the property should be divided in the event of divorce.

“Based on feedback from the public consultation, the parents of those who pay for the properties fear their wealth will be lost if their children divorce. In reality, many parents pour their savings into properties for their married children,” court spokesman Sun Jungong said yesterday, according to china. com.cn, a web portal affiliated with the state Information Office.

Some 465,000 couples called it a day in the first three months of this year, up 17 per cent from the same period last year. Courts handled 1.1 million divorce cases last year, many of which involved property disputes.

The new judicial interpretation also makes a controversial change to the ownership of the matrimonial home.

It says the person who made the down payment, and whose name appears on the property, would have sole ownership in the event of divorce. That is usually the husband. However, mortgage payments made by both partners will be considered joint property and should be shared evenly when the property is sold.

Previously, all property bought before marriage was considered to be jointly owned by the couple.

The new interpretation regarding married couples met a mixed reaction. Many found it sad that under the new law, the main consideration of marriage was no longer love but the ownership of property.

“It sounds like people are negotiating about what they will do with their property after divorce even before they get married,” one internet user said.

Others blamed the mainland’s soaring property prices, saying the only reason parents had to buy properties was that their children could not afford expensive homes when they married, typically several years after they graduated from college.

In Beijing, property prices in the secondary market were above 25,000 yuan (HK$30,500) per square metre at the end of last month. The annual average disposable income in the capital was just 29,000 yuan last year.

Lu Ying, an expert in marriage law at the China Law Society, said the interpretation could help protect parents who paid for their children’s homes. But she warned it also reflected changing view about marriage and society on the mainland. “The new values highlighting the needs of property are impacting marriage, which used to be based on love,” she said.