On July 22, 2024, bill No. 677659-8 was registered and sent to the Chairman of the State Duma.
Rule of law:
The Federal Law is aimed at amending paragraph 7 of Article 38 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which is currently in the following version:
A three-year limitation period applies to claims of spouses for the division of the common property of spouses whose marriage has been dissolved.
Guiding case law:
The Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 05.11.1998 No. 15 "On the application of legislation by courts when considering cases of divorce" in paragraph 19 explains how courts should apply this rule:
The three-year limitation period for claims for the division of property that is the common joint property of spouses whose marriage has been dissolved should be calculated not from the time of termination of the marriage, but from the day when the person learned or should have learned of the violation of his or her rights (clause 1 of Article 200 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
The logic of the current legislation regarding the application of paragraph 7 of Article 38 of the RF Family Code is such that a claim for the division of marital property may be filed within 3 years from the date of the dispute over common marital property, but not from the date of divorce.
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The disadvantages of such legal regulation are that, first of all, the current law protects the internal side of the relationship between spouses (former spouses), but does not fully protect the external side of the relationship (counterparties), when such a spouse (former spouse) is, for example, a party to a transaction for the purchase and sale of common property or when common marital property falls into the inheritance mass before its division.
The draft law proposes to amend paragraph 7 of Article 38 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation as follows:
A three-year limitation period, calculated from the date of divorce, shall apply to the claims of spouses for the division of the common property of spouses whose marriage has been dissolved.
The explanatory note to the draft law specifies the following key objectives of its adoption:
✓ the current legal regulation leads to legal uncertainty, non-uniformity of judicial practice and difficulties in the implementation of the rights of former spouses to divide property, since it is associated with a subjective factor - the spouse's awareness of the violation of his right to common property;
✓ in similar situations, the courts may come to opposite conclusions, determining the beginning of the limitation period in different ways;
✓ the existing rules allow the heirs of former spouses to apply to the court with a claim for the division of common property if it was not divided during the lifetime of the testator;
✓ maintaining the possibility of dividing property for an indefinite period after a divorce contradicts the very essence and purpose of the institution of marriage.
The bill provides that the changes will come into force on January 1, 2025.