Spouses, one Israeli and the other foreign, signed an agreement that bore the title of a 'prenuptial agreement' and was approved by the Court, in which it was recorded that any property registered in the name of one of them would be his only. Later they got married and after they separated the woman demanded a declaration that half of the apartment, which was purchased during the marriage and was registered in the name of the man only, belonged to her.
The Court found that the woman is entitled to half of the apartment. The presumption of sharing states that assets purchased by a married couple belong to both regardless of how they are registered, unless otherwise stated in a prenuptial agreement. A prenuptial agreement is an agreement that applies only to married couples and can also be signed in anticipation of the marriage and therefore does not apply to common law marriage. Thus, an agreement that was signed when the parties are known to the public as a couple but are not married and when their decision to marry was not yet in existence is a cohabitation agreement and not a prenuptial agreement, even if it was approved by the Court and received the validity of a judgment and even if the parties later got married. Despite the above, there are exceptional cases of unfairness in which a cohabitation agreement will be applied even after the marriage. Here, the apartment was purchased after the marriage and when the only reason for not recording the apartment also in the wife's name was a technical reason. The mortgage was paid from the joint account, part of the equity was the wife's and the apartment was used for the residence of the couple and their children for over 10 years. Therefore it is a joint apartment to which the presumption of sharing applies and the wife is entitled to half the apartment.