2 Is there a statutory matrimonial property regime and if so, what does it provide?
2.1. Please describe the general principles: Which goods are part of community property? Which goods are part of the separate estates of the spouses?
The statutory matrimonial property regime is community of property based on common ownership of assets. This is combined with single ownership of separate assets that one spouse owned before the marriage or which he/she acquired gratuitously during the marriage (e.g. a gift or inheritance) or from separate assets (e.g. interest and fruits).
Based on Art. 67 of the Slovenian Family Code, the common property of spouses consists of all property rights which were acquired by work or derived from their common property during the course of marriage and common life of spouses regardless of which spouse holds the title to it. The common property of spouses is also the property which was acquired on the basis and with the help of their common property and/or the property derived from it. If the property is to be divided, the shares are assumed to be equal if neither spouse proves that he/she is entitled to a greater share. In such a dispute, the court considers not only the income of each spouse but also other circumstances such as their contribution to the household, care of children and the maintenance of common property. Separate property of each spouse is the property which he/she had acquired before the marriage or gratuitously during the marriage (passage 1, Art. 77 of the Slovenian Family Code). Notwithstanding the origin or type of acquisition, separate property of a spouse refers to things of a smaller value meant exclusively for his/her personal use (passage 2, Art. 77 of the Slovenian Family Code).
2.2. Are there legal assumptions concerning the attribution of property?
All personal income (including income from a retirement pension) or earnings of any kind deriving from the work of a spouse or profit from common property are legally presumed to be part of the common property. A spouse may only claim the assets as his/her separate property if he/she proves that they originate from the time before the marriage was entered into or that they do not derive from the common property.
The legal property regime (i.e. regime of community property for common property of spouses and the regime of separate property of each of spouses) applies to spouses, except if they agree about the content of the property regime in a contract about the arrangement of their property and legal relations. In such event, the contracting property regime shall apply for them.
2.3. Should the spouses establish an inventory of assets? If so, when and how?
Slovenian law does not require the establishment of an inventory of assets.
2.4. Who is in charge of the administration of the property? Who is entitled to dispose of the property? May one spouse dispose of/administer the property alone or is the consent of the other spouse necessary (e.g. in cases of disposal of the spouses’ home)? What effect does the missing consent have on the validity of a legal transaction and on opposability towards a third party?
The spouses administer and use common property jointly and consensually, unless they have agreed that one spouse alone shall be entitled to administer the common property and to dispose of common assets for the benefit of both of the spouses. The other spouse may withdraw from such an agreement at any time. If one spouse disposes of common property without the required consent of the other, the latter can challenge the legal transaction if the third party to the transaction knew or should have known that the asset concerned was part of the common property. Otherwise, the deprived spouse is only entitled to claim compensation from the other spouse. The spouses may not individually dispose of their undetermined share in the common property but may exercise their right of ownership of their separate property independently.
2.5. Are any legal transactions made by one spouse also binding on the other?
Legal transactions concerning common property and everyday needs of the family that are concluded by only one spouse create joint obligations and are binding for both spouses. Spouses are jointly and severally liable for joint obligations.
2.6. Who is liable for debts incurred during the marriage? Which property may be used by creditors to satisfy their claims?
Both spouses are jointly and severally liable for debts incurred during the marriage which are related to the common property and marital expenses. The common property and, if that is not sufficient, the spouses’ separate property may be used to satisfy creditors’ claims. If one spouse’s contribution to the satisfaction of common debts exceeds his/her share of these debts, he/she can request a reimbursement from the other spouse. If creditors of debts that bind only one spouse want to recover these debts from common property they first have to request the court to determine the debtor spouse’s share of the common property, after which they may seek to recover the debt from the share determined to belong to the debtor spouse.
If the sale of a share held by one spouse of the common property is allowed in the execution proceedings, the other spouse has the priority right to buy that share for the price which is determined according to the Act governing the execution and security. In the case of a personal bankruptcy of one spouse, the court running this proceeding over that spouse defines with a decision on testing of the rights of exclusion upon a receiver’s proposal that the share of bankruptcy debtor on common property equals one half, except if the other spouse filed an application for the right of exclusion. If the receiver estimates that the share of bankruptcy debtor on common property exceeds one half, the receiver as the legal representative of bankruptcy debtor has to demand the share of bankruptcy debtor to be determined. The other spouse may in the proceeding of personal bankruptcy over the spouse file an application for the right of exclusion to prove that his/her share of common property is larger. If such an application is not filed by the other spouse, it is considered that he/she applied for the right of exclusion on the share of common property that equals one half in the proceeding of personal bankruptcy.
