The husband gambles?

Property can be divided unequally at the time of divorce

The balance of resources arrangement in the law stipulates an equal distribution of the property accumulated by the couple at the time of divorce, but there are some cases in which it is possible to deviate from this.

In conjunction with Legal Zap

16/06/2022

Thursday, 16 June 2022, 15:04

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"If a spouse used the common property for gambling and lost it, the court will allow an unequal distribution of the property" (Photo: ShutterStock)

The Israeli legislature believes in the principle of equality, and one of the forms in which this principle is expressed is when divorcing spouses.

The resource balancing arrangement that has existed in the law since the 1970s provides for an equal distribution of the assets that the couple has accumulated together when they decide to separate.

This arrangement applies both to assets that the couple jointly accumulated at the time of marriage and to assets that were registered in the name of only one of them and accrued during this period.

The law contains detailed rules as to how the assets should be divided at the time of divorce in order to create equality, but not at any cost.

However, as Adv. Aryeh Lerner, who specializes in family law, explains, there are a number of exceptional cases in the law in which it is possible to deviate from the principle of equality and allow unequal distribution of property in circumstances where equal distribution would be unfair

. Appoint one spouse to gamble, evade property, and commit other illegal acts.

Advocate Lerner: “The arrangement, enshrined in the Financial Relations Act, applies to both married couples and those who have chosen to live together as public figures.

The arrangement

defines as joint property of the spouses, which must be divided between them at the time of divorce, any property registered in the name of both and accrued during the marriage as well as any property that was registered in the name of only one of them but accrued at the time of marriage. "

States that as long as no prenuptial agreement has been signed between the spouses, the joint property they have accumulated at the time of marriage (both that which was registered in the name of both of them and that which was registered in the name of only one of them) will be divided equally when they divorce.

"The assets defined as common property under the resource balance arrangement include, inter alia, shares, real estate and savings, whether these were registered in the name of both or whether they were registered in the name of only one of them,

Advocate Lerner emphasizes that "pension rights, study funds, provident funds, etc., are also considered joint property that will be divided in the divorce when the resource balance arrangement is made.

However, it should be noted that of these rights, only the rights accrued during the marriage will be divided.

Future rights that will accrue after the divorce will be excluded from the arrangement. "

Which assets will not be distributed when the resource balancing arrangement is made?

"The assets that will not be divided when the resource balance arrangement is made are that the spouses agreed in writing that they will not be divided at the time of divorce, even if there is no financial arrangement between the spouses. ".

According to Advocate Lerner, the division of property at the time of divorce will not include assets that the couple held before they got married or assets that they received as a gift or inheritance during the marriage, but this - unless it has been proven that those assets had a sharing intention

When spouses express an intent to share in respect of a personal property, they discover by way of conduct that for them it is a property that is common.

"For example," explains Adv. Lerner

, "if one of the spouses brought with him to the marriage an apartment that he owned or he inherited an apartment during the marriage, but the two lived in it, it will probably be determined that there was an intention to share it."

As a rule, the courts recognize cohabitation in the apartment as indicating an intention to share, so that it will be included in the framework of the common property.

"Even in cases where one of the spouses inherited an apartment and rented it, for example, but the funds were transferred to a joint account, a sharing intention will probably be recognized."

There are cases where despite the mandatory rules of equal property distribution, the court will allow deviations from them.

These are exceptional cases where fairness requires deviation from the rules.

"If, for example, a spouse used the common property for gambling and lost it, the court will allow an unequal distribution of the property," explains Attorney Lerner. According to him, even if illegal offenses were committed in the

joint

property, an unequal distribution is possible, as well as if the spouse has resorted to physical or mental violence over time over the other spouse. He points out:

Phone - 077-2305061 To

the firm's page on the legal website

• Sentence

• family law

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• divorce