The husband's claim for participation in the acquisitions
The opinion has generally prevailed that the wife after the divorce gets 1/3 of the property of the other husband, without any other conditions, which, as will be realized later, is completely wrong and misleading. In principle, the spouse has the possibility to claim and receive a percentage of the property of the other spouse but only under very specific conditions, which are mentioned in the Law and which must be cumulative. The spouse certainly has the right to participate in the acquisitions, as is the correct name of this arrangement, but certain conditions must be met, which make the situation a bit more complicated than the fact that the spouse simply gets 1/3 of the property of the other spouse.
Therefore, starting the examination of this issue, we must say that the initial condition for the creation of the claim to participate in the acquisitions is the dissolution or annulment of the marriage or even the three-year separation of the spouses. Therefore, the claim for participation in the acquisitions cannot be raised at any time but after the recitation of the irrevocable dissolution or annulment of the marriage or even if the spouses have been separated for at least three years. For example, in the case of a couple who have been in a permanent separation for a period of less than three years and the marriage has not been dissolved, there is no case of participation in the acquisitions.
The second condition for there to be any property claim by the spouse is that the property of the other spouse has increased after the marriage. It goes without saying that we cannot talk about participation in acquisitions if there are no acquisitions. And we can't talk about acquisition if it doesn't mean an increase in wealth. For example, if after the marriage the spouse bought a house but with money, which he saved from a house, which he already had before the marriage and sold, then we cannot talk about participation in the acquisitions, since yes there was a new acquisition but not there was an increase in wealth after the marriage. Therefore, in order for the spouse to claim participation, an increase in the property of the other spouse is required, which results from the comparison of the property of the spouse in two specific periods of time, before the marriage and after the marriage or the three-year gap.
If this condition is also met, i.e. if there is indeed an increase in the property of the spouse, then it must be examined whether the spouse contributed to this increase. Spousal contribution means any assistance to the other spouse capable of increasing his property. It can mean funding this with money from her/his spouse's work and it can even go as far as a simple daily contribution. The wife has been judged to contribute to the increase of her husband's wealth, even if she does not work but takes care of her home and the couple's children. Even this can be considered a contribution, as the Law does not mention anything about a financial contribution but speaks of any contribution. If, for example, the husband works and the wife does not work but takes care of her home, children and family, then she can claim a share of the assets according to the percentage determined to be her share. If, on the other hand, the increase in the husband's property consists in the donation of a property by his father, then the wife has no claim, because she cannot be considered to have contributed to it.
So if all the aforementioned conditions are met, then the spouse can claim the return of the part of the increase, which comes from his/her own contribution. It is precisely at this point in the regulation that the misunderstanding about the percentage of participation lies, because the Law states that the spouse's contribution is assumed to be one third of the increase. This practically means that the spouse only needs to prove that he/she contributed to the increase of the property, in order to be able to receive 1/3 of the property as a presumption. But this will only happen if the other spouse fails to prove something different, i.e. that the contribution was 1/5 or 1/10 or that there was no contribution. Therefore, the fact that the spouse receives 1/3 of the property of the other spouse is only a presumption of the Law, which, however, is debatable and cannot be disputed or contested. Therefore, in any case, the percentage of 1/3 is not a given but simply possible, as there have been many cases where the spouse's contribution was judged to be much higher than 1/3 or even much lower than this percentage.
From the above it is understood that the spouse, who wishes to claim participation in the other spouse's assets, cannot do so without any other, on the contrary, several conditions are required, both regarding the issue of the starting time point of the Judicial pursuit , as well as regarding the issue of proof as to whether there was an increase in the property and the spouse's contribution to this increase, while the actual fact of what percentage the spouse's contribution to the increase in the property of the other spouse amounts to is certainly an object of proof.
Alexandros G. Tsapelis, Lawyer