Divorce by mutual consent - General case

Verified 29 septembre 2021 - Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister), Ministry of Justice

Your situation

  • Other situation
Edit

Each spouse duty have a lawyer to divorce by mutual consent.

Who shall I contact

You must sign a fee agreement with your lawyer to to fix his fees.

If you don't have enough resources, you can legal aid to cover all or part of these costs.

Divorce by mutual consent by privately signed document Countersigned by lawyers is possible if the following conditions are met:

No minimum length of marriage is required.

Spouses do not have to disclose the reasons for divorce.

Warning  

if one of the spouses is a foreigner, it should be noted that in some countries, only judicial divorce (i.e. subject to the approval of the judge) is recognized.

Lawyers draft a convention that must mention the spouses' agreement on the marriage breakdown and the effects of divorce.

In particular, the agreement shall include the following information:

The lawyer shall send the draft agreement to the spouse whom he is assisting by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

The draft may not be signed by the spouses before the expiry of a reflection period of 15 days from the reception.

The convention must be signed together by the spouses and their lawyers in 3 copies. Each spouse shall keep an original of the agreement together with its annexes. On the 3rde original is for the notary.

FYI  

until the agreement is lodged with a notary, the spouses may bring an application before the court for body separation or judicial divorce.

The agreement shall be forwarded to the notary, by one of the lawyers, within 7 days following the date of signature of the agreement. The notary keeps it as a minute.

The notary checks the presence of the mandatory indications in the agreement and whether the reflection period of 15 days has been respected.

He does not receive the spouses and their lawyers.

The deposit of the agreement with the notary allows the agreement to be given certain date and enforceability, i.e. the Convention is now applicable.

Who shall I contact

Please note

if you lose your original of the divorce agreement, the notary may issue you a copy.

The mention of divorce must be noted in the margins of the marriage certificate of the spouses and the birth certificate of each of the spouses.

Your lawyers must send an application to the mayor of the place of marriage accompanied by a certificate of deposit issued by the notary.

Who shall I contact

If the marriage certificate has been issued abroad, your lawyers must send the application to the Central Civil Registry Service (Scec).

Who shall I contact

The City Hall or the Scec transmits the information to the birth mayors of the spouses so that they too update the documents.

FYI  

you can take care of the request to update your marital status if your lawyer does not do so.

This entry in the margin of civil status shall be obligatory so that divorce can be enforceable against third parties, i.e. known and recognized by the administration, the employer, ...

This does not exempt you from informing third parties, one by one, of your divorce.

You can also update your family booklet.

The cost of divorce varies with lawyers' fees, goods to be shared, notary's fee and procedure.

Each spouse must pay his or her lawyer and his or her fees are set freely with him or her.

A spouse with insufficient resources to initiate divorce proceedings may apply legal aid.

The divorce agreement lays down the apportionment of the costs of divorce between the spouses. The agreement may not charge the party receiving legal aid more than half of the costs of the divorce. If the agreement is not clear, the costs of divorce are shared by half.

The deposit at the notary of the agreement amounts to €41.20 excl. tax (€49.44 TTC).

Notary fees may be added if the agreement includes a statement of settlement relating to immovable property or an allocation of immovable property under a compensatory benefit.

Right to share

When the spouses divorce, they must share the property they had together (movable, financial and real estate).

A tax is imposed on the net value of the assets shared between the spouses, after deduction of any debts.

This is called the right of sharing.

FYI  

for assets less than or equal to €5,000, the right of sharing shall be fixed at a flat rate at €125.

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region