3 How can the spouses arrange their property regime?
3.1. Which provisions can be modified by a contract and which cannot? Which matrimonial property regimes may be chosen?
After concluding the marriage, the spouses may agree to extend or reduce the community property determined by law.
Extending means the spouses may agree that the community property shall also include the property that would otherwise belong to the separate estates of the spouses (for example property obtained as a gift, by inheritance or as a substitute for property obtained before concluding the marriage). Reducing means the spouses may agree that parts of the community property (for example returns, benefits and accruals of an asset belonging exclusively to a spouse) shall be excluded from the community property.
Similarly the spouses may agree on the management of community property (§ 143a ods.1 OZ), for example they can stipulate that community property or specific assets shall be managed by both spouses or only by one of them. When a spouse disposes of the property excluded from the joint management, the other spouse will not be able to claim invalidity of the disposal. These modifications of the statutory scope of the community property only apply to property acquired after an agreement has been concluded.
The spouses may agree a deferred community of property, in which the community property is not established until the day the marriage ceases to exist. In that case the agreement does not amend the extent of community property, but the time of its establishment. During the marriage each of the spouses therefore obtains the exclusive ownership of an asset and only at the moment the marriage ceases to exist, all things and titles create the complex of community property, which is then settled.
3.2. What are the formal requirements and who should I contact?
For the conclusion, amendment or cancellation of the marital agreements described above, an authentic instrument drawn up by a civil notary is required.
3.3. When may the contract be concluded and when does it come into effect?
Slovak law does not provide for prenuptial agreements. The marital agreements therefore may be concluded only after the marriage has been entered into. If the agreement concerns real estate, it becomes effective only after registration in the real estate cadastre.
3.4. May an existing contract be modified by the spouses? If so, under what conditions?
The agreement may be changed at any time during the marriage. Also, the modified agreement must have the form of an authentic instrument drawn up by a civil law notary to be valid.
3.5. Can a matrimonial contract be given retroactive effect according to the national law in your country, when spouses conclude this contract during marriage?
[This information is valuable for international spouses, who have since the European Regulation (EU) 2016/1103 of 24 June 2016 went into force on 29 January 2019 have the possibility to make a choice of law with retroactive effect, see article 22 par. 3 and 4 of the regulation. It is important to know if the national law accepts the making of a matrimonial contract during marriage with retroactive effect as well, so the choice of law and the matrimonial contract can both have retroactive effect.]
The Slovak legal system recognises only agreements on the extension or reduction of the legal matrimonial regime. These agreements do not have retroactive effect and can only be concluded during the marriage.
