Getting married in Belgium
Marriage contract in Belgium: what it is, what it costs and when to see the notary
A marriage contract is not required. If you do not sign one, the legal regime applies automatically from the day of the civil wedding, says notaris.be . If you want other rules, you sign a marriage contract (huwelijksovereenkomst) with a notary, preferably before the wedding. The notary's fee is capped by law at 195 euros, according to the tariff decree on notaris.be . The federation of notaries estimates an ordinary contract at 400 to 600 euros on notaire.be . This page summarises what the notaries and the government publish. It is not legal advice: for your situation, the notary is the right person to ask.
Elian Van Cutsem, founder of Ringske
No contract: the legal regime
Every married couple has a matrimonial property regime. If you choose nothing, it is the legal regime (wettelijk stelsel), also called the legal community regime. It has three estates: one personal estate for each of you, and a common estate.
What you owned before the wedding stays personal, such as a car or a building plot, and so does whatever you receive through an inheritance or a gift. Debts from before the wedding, debts tied to an inheritance or gift, and strictly personal debts stay personal too. What you earn during the marriage becomes common, such as wages and rental income, as do things you buy together, such as a house, and anything that cannot be proven to be personal. Common debts are debts you take on together, the costs of the household and of raising children, and debts that benefit the common estate. That is how the page on the legal regime on notaris.be puts it.
The notaries' brochure Huwen lists a few effects that couples do not always expect. Money in an account in one partner's name is presumed to belong to both of you. An invoice in one name, dated during the marriage, does not prove the item belongs to that person alone. Income from a personal asset, such as rent from an inherited house, is common as well. For major decisions, such as a mortgage or buying a home with common money, you sign together. Day-to-day purchases each of you can make alone.
Some rules apply to every married couple, with or without a contract. The family home can never be sold without the other partner's consent, even if it belongs to only one of you. Each of you contributes to the costs of the marriage in proportion to your means. No contract can set those basic rules aside, the same brochure says.
Many couples never sign a contract because the legal regime suits them. The notaries say so themselves on notaris.be . A contract can refine the legal regime with clauses, but it cannot change its core: everything that cannot be proven to be personal stays common. If that does not work for you, you choose a different regime.
Marrying with separation of property
With separation of property (scheiding van goederen), you stay financially independent. There are two estates, one for each of you, and no common estate, says notaris.be . You can still buy things together. A house you buy together is then owned by both of you in joint ownership (onverdeeldheid).
The notaries' argument is protection against debts. A common estate can serve as security for creditors. With separation of property, the business creditors of one partner have no claim on the other partner's assets. As examples of couples who might prefer this regime, the notaries on notaris.be mention couples where one or both are self-employed, and blended families.
The downside is in the same sources. Each of you keeps your own income. If one of you stops working for a while, to care for the children or because of illness, that person builds up no assets of their own. In a divorce or after a death that can hurt, says the brochure Huwen .
Separation of property without any extra clauses is commonly called pure separation (zuivere scheiding). If you want to keep your independence and still correct that imbalance, you add a settlement clause (verrekenbeding). The partner who built up less during the marriage then has a claim on the partner who built up more when the marriage ends, by divorce or by death. Between yourselves, you settle as if you had married under a community of property, without it looking that way to outsiders. Source: notaris.be on settlement clauses . Since 1 September 2018 the law sets which assets count, how large the claim is and when the settlement happens. You may depart from that in your contract, according to the brochure.
notaris.be describes two more mechanisms. An added internal common estate (TIGV) is a pot you fill together, often with the house or with savings, while separation still applies towards creditors. A judicial fairness correction (rechterlijke billijkheidscorrectie) lets the family court award fair compensation on request, when the marriage has irretrievably broken down and the contract has unexpected, harmful effects.
Universal community of property
The opposite of separation is universal community (algehele gemeenschap). Everything is common, including what one of you inherits or is given, and according to the brochure Huwen also what you owned before the wedding. Whose name is on the invoice or the account makes no difference. When the marriage ends, by divorce or death, everything is divided.
The notaries warn on notaris.be that this can feel unfair. Whoever inherits a large sum during the marriage shares it in a divorce. In their words, the regime is for partners who very deliberately want to share everything, without distinction. Their example: an older couple without children who want to protect each other as much as possible and leave everything to each other.
Choice clause, survivorship clause and other clauses
A contract does not have to choose a different regime. You can keep the legal regime and only add clauses. The notaries list several on notaris.be : an inventory of who owns what, clauses that bring assets into or out of the common estate, settlement clauses, the Valkeniers clause, and the survivorship clause and the choice clause. What follows is their explanation in short.
What happens after a death explains why those clauses exist. If there are children, the common estate is in principle split in two: one half for the surviving spouse, one half for the children, with the surviving spouse keeping the usufruct. If there are no children, the surviving spouse receives the whole common estate. A clause of unequal division can give the surviving spouse more than half, for example three quarters. A clause of preferential taking (voorafname) lets the surviving spouse take certain things before the division, such as the family home with its contents. If the surviving spouse later wants to sell the house, the children do not have to co-sign. That is how the brochure Huwen explains it.
The survivorship clause (verblijvingsbeding) goes furthest. When one partner dies, the other becomes full owner of the entire common estate, and the children only inherit when the second parent dies. It is also known as the "longest living takes all" clause. According to notaris.be , it is no longer always advisable. Since 1981 the surviving spouse has the usufruct of the family home anyway, and the clause has become heavy in tax terms, with possibly high inheritance tax. If you have a contract from before 1981, the same page suggests having it reviewed.
The choice clause (keuzebeding) is the more flexible version. When one partner dies, the survivor chooses which assets from the common estate to take in full ownership, and which to divide under the ordinary inheritance rules. That choice is made at the time, with the family situation and the tax effects in view, not years in advance. A choice clause can also go into a contract that otherwise keeps the legal regime, says notaris.be .
Two clauses often come with a building project. With a contribution clause (inbrengbeding) you bring a personal asset into the common estate, for example one partner's building plot on which you build the family home together. That has to be done by notarial deed, says notaris.be . Without such an arrangement, a house built on one partner's land belongs, according to the brochure Huwen , to that partner alone, even if you pay for it together. A withdrawal clause (uitbrengbeding) does the opposite: it moves an asset out of the common estate into a personal one. The Valkeniers clause is meant for blended families. It can limit the inheritance rights of the new spouse in favour of children from a previous relationship.
When to see the notary, and how it works
Make the appointment before the wedding date. notaris.be says a marriage contract signed before the wedding is cheaper than one signed after, because the notary has more formalities after the wedding. You choose your notary freely, and you sign the contract together at that notary's office. According to the brochure Huwen , a first meeting is usually free. If your file needs thorough study, agree on the fee clearly in advance.
Bring to that meeting what you own and what you are planning: a house or a building plot, your own business, children from a previous relationship, an inheritance that is coming. Those are the situations the notaries themselves mention as moments to think about your regime. The contract can contain an inventory of what each of you owns at the time of the wedding. The contract itself is then the proof, and it cannot get lost: the notary keeps the original and you can always get a copy, says the brochure Huwen .
After signing, the notary registers the deed in the Central Register of Marriage Contracts. That is why you no longer need to bring a certificate from the notary to the marriage declaration, says Vlaanderen.be . The register is managed by the Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries. It holds no deeds, only data about them, such as the applicable matrimonial property regime, according to the page on the Central Register on the authentic sources site .
In Ringske's wedding checklist, the meeting with the notary is an optional task 180 days before the wedding date. On the month-by-month timeline it falls in the period from nine to six months before the wedding. That leaves time for a second meeting if you are unsure, and keeps the contract out of the last weeks before the wedding.
What a marriage contract costs
No contract costs nothing at the notary. If you do want one, the notary's fee is capped by law. The tariff decree published on notaris.be lists, for a marriage contract, a minimum of 8.55 euros and a maximum of 195 euros. A counter-deed (tegenbrief) has the same fee, but the contract and the counter-deed together may not exceed 195 euros. Source: the tariff decree on notaris.be .
That cap is the fee, not the full invoice. The federation of notaries writes on notaire.be that for an ordinary marriage contract, without transferring real estate, you can count on 400 to 600 euros. It depends on your situation and on how complex the contract is. That range is the federation's estimate, not a second legal tariff. A gift in the contract has its own scale in the tariff decree. Ask the notary for an estimate for your file in advance.
In the same tariff decree, a change during the marriage has a fee of 222 euros, with or without a contribution and with or without a clause of unequal division. If the change comes with a liquidation and division of the common estate, a scale on the gross assets applies instead of a fixed amount. All public amounts for the wedding, including town fees, are on what a wedding costs. Put the notary's estimate into your wedding budget as a fixed amount.
Changing it later
You can have a marriage contract changed at any time, says notaris.be , for example after buying a house, having children or starting a business. Couples who married without a contract can also sign one later that departs from the legal regime. No court is involved, only one or more notarial deeds, according to the brochure Huwen .
You go to the notary together, who draws up a deed of amendment. If you switch to an entirely different regime, an inventory (boedelbeschrijving) is sometimes needed first, says notaris.be . According to the brochure Huwen , that inventory is required when one of you asks for it, and when you switch to a completely different regime, such as from separation of property to the legal regime. The notary handles publication within the month: for most changes an extract in the Belgian Official Gazette (Staatsblad), and registration in the central register. A change requires more formalities, research and checks than a contract before the wedding, and so costs more.
Living together or getting married
Couples in a legal cohabitation (wettelijk samenwonen) make a declaration at the town hall. There is no common estate then. Each keeps their own assets, the income from them and their earnings from work. The family home is protected, you contribute to the costs according to your means, and you are jointly liable for normal debts for the household and the children. Source: notaris.be on legal cohabitation .
The biggest difference shows after a death. Partners who simply live together without a declaration do not inherit from each other unless there is a will. Married partners are, according to notaris.be , the best protected: the law gives the surviving spouse the usufruct of the entire estate. What more is possible depends on the regime and on the clauses in your contract.
When one of you is not Belgian
If one of you is not Belgian, or you will live abroad after the wedding, Belgian matrimonial property law does not apply automatically. Since 29 January 2019 a European regulation covers this, and Belgium is one of the countries applying it. It determines which national law governs the property of international couples, says the European e-Justice Portal . So tell the notary about your nationalities and where you will live. What else this means for the declaration is on marrying when one of you is not Belgian.