Legal Updates

A provision in a prenuptial agreement relating to the manner of dividing the estate of a party to the agreement is null and void

February 26, 2025
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A couple signed a prenuptial agreement according to which if the man passes during the course of their life together and before he has managed to purchase an apartment for investment, his widow will be entitled to inherit his full rights in the apartment he owned prior to the marriage and which was defined in that agreement as an unbalanced asset.

The Court held that the woman has no rights to the apartment by virtue of the prenuptial agreement, as it was part of the estate. Whereas provisions in a prenuptial agreement that determine the scope of the estate's assets are valid, provisions relating to the manner of dividing the estate of a deceased are void. This is due to the Property Relations Between Spouses Law, which applies to prenuptial agreements, deals with determining the content of the estate, while the Inheritance Law applies to the division of the estate. Here, the apartment was defined as an asset owned exclusively by the man, and as one that cannot be balanced and is therefore part of the estate. Therefore, the rights in the apartment are to be registered based on the inheritance order and in disregard of the provisions of the prenuptial agreement.