Conjugal Property Versus

Absolute Community Of
Property
Marriage changes everything including the property relationship. Here are the basic
rules on the effect of marriage to property relationship:

-the spouse cannot sell, donate, lease, mortgage or exchange properties to each other;
-in the case of pre-nuptial agreement where the spouses' properties are separated,
either spouse is not allowed to donate more than one-fifth of this or her property to the
other spouse;
-when a property is donated, given or inherited via gratuitous act to either spouse within
their marriage, the receiving spouse reserves the right to own the property exclusively.
-if there was a pre-nuptial agreement, the terms and conditions within that pre-nuptial
agreement shall apply;
-special cases such as local customs and traditions, may also be applied.

Conjugal Property
-when property is acquire before the husband got married, the property shall be
exclusively his;
-when property is acquired before the wife got married, the property will be exclusively
hers;
-marriage joins exclusive properties as part of one estate within the conjugal property
and the fruits of those properties shall be shared between the husband and wife for the
duration of their marriage;
-in the event the husband and wife file for divorce, annulment or legal separation, the
husband's exclusive property, acquired before the marriage and all its fruits shall not be
included in the conjugal property and will be exclusively owned by him; the same theory
applies to the exclusive property of the wife;
-when the spouses filed for separation of properties in court, the properties that the
husband and the wife acquired during their marriage will be considered part of their
conjugal property and this will be split in half between the wife and the husband.

Absolute Community of Property

-when all properties are acquired by the spouses before their marriage and all
properties acquired during their marriage, it will be considered as part of one whole
estate of the absolute community of property, which is owned by both parties;
-when all properties are inherited, donated or given gratuitously to either of the spouse
before their marriage shall be considered as part of the absolute community of property
upon marriage, and shall be owned by both parties;
-in the event of divorce, annulment or legal separation, the regime of absolute
community of property shall not be affected and will remain owned by both spouses,
unless the spouses have filed for judicial separate of properties;
-in case the spouses filed Judicial Separation of Properties, the properties within the
Absolute Community of Properties shall be split between the husband and the wife.

Conjugal Partnership of Gains of Properties dictates that properties acquired before the union are
exclusively that of the buyer, where any property purchased or built by the husband during his
singlehood is exclusively his. For recent and future marriages, Absolute Community of Property is
applied, where any property purchased and/or built by a husband when still single, is eventually also
owned by his wife upon marriage.