No matter how happy the beginning of family life is, reality leads spouses to different life situations. According to statistics, the number of divorces in Russia ranges from 15 per 100 marriages. And this means that most families who got married at some stage of their life together will be forced to figure out the procedure for divorce in 2020.
The legal department specializes in divorce proceedings. In this article, we have reflected our experience over recent years and successfully intertwined it with the changed subtleties in the legislation in 2020.
It is worth noting that 2020 was not generous with changes, however, some points still need to be taken into account. Therefore, even if you have friends who experienced divorce in 2020 or earlier, we recommend that you carefully study this material in order to spend less time and money during this difficult stage of life.
In this article we will tell you how to conduct a divorce process without physical and moral losses, what documents are needed to submit to the court, the procedure for the proceedings, and in what form the application must be submitted.
Step-by-step instructions for divorce
Unfortunately, no married couple is immune from divorce. It can be difficult to separate peacefully and without harm to partners, so the law regulates many aspects of the dissolution of a relationship.
The place to start preparing to end your marriage is by thinking about your individual situation. Sometimes, to complete the procedure, it is enough to contact the registry office. However, a situation where the spouses raised a child together or owned expensive property will require a divorce in court. There are many features associated with submitting an application and preparing the necessary documents.
In addition to the termination of the relationship itself, during the divorce process, issues related to the minor child are resolved, his place of residence and the right to alimony are determined.
Where to begin?
For spouses, first of all, it is important to decide in what order the divorce will occur. This is an important part of the procedure, since disagreements on this issue will only complicate life in the future. It is necessary to consider the nuances of your divorce process. As already noted, there are two ways to dissolve a marriage: judicial and in the registry office. When choosing the second option, you need to remember that it is only possible under certain circumstances, namely:
- mutual agreement
- absence of a child.
There are also situations when one of the spouses is declared incompetent or missing and is serving a sentence of imprisonment. In such cases, you can also resort to a simple procedure for dissolving a family union.
What documents are required?
A simple procedure for terminating a relationship requires a small package of documents.
It includes
- copies of passports,
- statement,
- marriage certificate.
The court order will require, in addition to those mentioned, other documents.
If there were children in the family, then it is necessary to provide their birth certificates. An agreement on the division of property or a marriage contract is also attached to the package of papers. It is possible that the judge will request other documents that will be required to consider the case.
By the way, a good solution in such a situation would be to use the services of one of the family lawyers
Changes in the bill
The last time changes to the law on divorce were made in 2020. Then they determined the amount of state duty for different methods of divorce.
The amendments affected the dissolution of marriage with foreigners. Cases are considered in court. Petitions are also accepted if both spouses do not live in Russia. They will be separated according to the norms of Russian law.
As for the changes, according to which the state fee for divorce was going to be increased to 30 thousand rubles, they remain at the level of rumors and are not supported by any legislative acts.
Possible methods of divorce are determined by Federal Law No. 143. The document describes ways to quickly dissolve a marriage, and also indicates controversial issues that require appeal to a judicial authority. The most complex procedure is one that requires division of property, determination of the place of residence of joint children and the procedure for paying alimony.
Divorce by mutual consent of spouses
Contacting the registry office will significantly reduce the time required for the process, but such a simple procedure for resolving the issue can only be chosen if both parties agree to the divorce and the family was without children.
Note! Adopted minor children are considered equal to their own children. But if the child is adopted by only one spouse, then in such a situation it is not necessary to go to court.
An application submitted jointly serves as the basis for terminating the relationship between husband and wife.
It indicates personal information, declares mutual consent and confirms the absence of circumstances preventing a divorce in the registry office. Also attached is a receipt for payment of the state fee, which is 650 rubles and is charged from each spouse. Anyone who decides to return their previous surname will have to spend more; in this situation, the additional fee will be 1,600 rubles. The period after which the spouses are considered officially divorced is one month. It is given for the possible reconciliation of husband and wife, and it cannot be shortened under any circumstances.
An application for divorce to the registry office is submitted in the prescribed form. You can download samples below. If during the divorce procedure people have unresolved disputes about acquired property, alimony payments, etc., the registry office will not solve this kind of problem and will send spouses who could not agree to the court.
They will teach you to say goodbye
The law provides a detailed answer to the question of what is considered joint property of spouses. To put it quite simply: everything they have acquired together is their common good. The courts will not divide each item separately: today a car, tomorrow an apartment, a year later a dacha. The initiative was taken by the chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, as well as the head of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children, Tamara Pletneva.
“The bill proposes to establish in the Family Code that the common property of the spouses is the totality of all “assets” and “liabilities” acquired by the spouses during marriage. It will be considered as an integral property complex, and not as a set of individual objects,” said Pavel Krasheninnikov. Accordingly, if the spouses could not divide everything peacefully, the court will help them sort it out. But this will be done within one process.
Before the division of property begins, the court will have to determine the size of the common property, and then determine the size of each person's share.
The classic version: cut everything in half. But separate agreements are also possible, where one gets a third, another two-thirds, etc. Then a list of objects will be drawn up, what will be transferred to whom in offset of their share.
Let's say a family has an apartment, a dacha, a car, and bank accounts. The total mass is such and such, everyone is entitled to that much. The wife gets an apartment and almost the entire bank account, the husband gets a dacha, a car and some money.
The initiative also spells out in detail how to distribute debts between spouses when someone has accumulated loans. When an unsustainable debt has become joint, the possibility of a joint family bankruptcy procedure will arise. And it will be possible to get a divorce in installments, that is, for example, one of the spouses who remains to live in a large, now former family house, will pay compensation to the other, but not immediately, but gradually. And these are not all the ideas from the adopted document. As Pavel Krasheninnikov said, the bill improves property relations in family law. In this case, point corrections are assumed.
If a husband and wife have accumulated common debts that are impossible to sort out, they can begin joint bankruptcy proceedings
“They are formulated very carefully with the goal of minimal impact on the established institution of family relations in Russia,” he clarified.
Another point is that property relations between spouses are based on trust. This means that each of them can independently sell most of what they have acquired together. For example, no one stops a husband from surprising his wife by selling the family car. Or by drinking the microwave. At the same time, the other spouse often cannot protect his property interests, since these transactions can only be challenged if the buyer’s bad faith is proven. What is the demand for a person who comes from an ad and buys a car?
Initiative equalizes the balance. If one of the spouses sold family property without the consent of the partner, his share in the common property during a divorce may be reduced.
“In addition, a spouse (former spouse), who did not know about the acquisition of any property during the marriage by the other spouse, will be able to protect his interests after a divorce and demand the transfer of the appropriate volume of rights to such property to him, based on the established size of shares in all property,” explains Pavel Krasheninnikov.
So if the husband secretly gave diamonds to his mistress, the wife may well demand her share of them.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for spouses to have common debts, for example, debts for utility bills and loans. The bill proposes to supplement bankruptcy procedures for individuals with rules on the possibility of joint bankruptcy of spouses who have common debts. This will be possible upon their application.
And Rosreestr will check the marital status of all apartment buyers. If a married man brings documents, he will not be made the sole owner of the home. According to current legislation, if spouses have purchased real estate, then the right of common joint ownership of this object is not reflected in the Unified State Register of Real Estate, unless the purchasing spouse requests this in his application.
The bill provides for an almost “automatic” procedure for including in the Unified State Register of Information about the ownership of real estate by both spouses simultaneously. The registrar will be obliged, through interdepartmental information interaction, to request information about the presence or absence of a defect from each citizen who applies for registration of ownership of purchased real estate.
Divorce in court
Judicial divorce is regulated by the Family Code and the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court. There are many reasons for going to court during a divorce, and each case is individual.
The following are considered common:
- common minor child;
- disagreement of one of the parties;
- evasion of one of the spouses from registering the termination of marriage in the registry office.
Note! The law protects the interests of pregnant women and women who have recently given birth by limiting the husband's right to file for divorce during pregnancy and one year after, and the latter rule applies even if the child is stillborn.
To begin the process, it is necessary to submit a statement of claim, which will include information about the marriage, the reason for the breakdown of the family, the age of the common children, and whether there is an agreement on their upbringing.
This is where a divorce lawyer can help.
In addition, documents must be attached, in particular:
- receipt of payment of state duty;
- children's birth certificates;
- marriage certificate.
Documents are submitted jointly or by one spouse.
It should be remembered that former spouses can resolve various disputes in the same court process: it is not necessary to submit separate applications for the division of property, for resolving the issue of raising a child, or for paying alimony. It will be sufficient to include such requirements in the main statement.
After preparing the application for divorce and all the required attachments, you need to decide which court to go to. If the parties have disagreements regarding the maintenance and upbringing of children, then such a case falls within the jurisdiction of the district court.
If there is no such dispute, the document is sent to the magistrate.
The court hearing may be held behind closed doors if it is undesirable for any personal information to be disclosed to unauthorized persons.
Note! A spouse who independently files for divorce has the right to go to court at the place of residence of the defendant, that is, the other party. However, the applicant can also come to the court at his place of registration if he has health problems or the second spouse has disappeared.
Federal Law on Divorce: official text
The process of divorce in Russia is regulated by several government documents - the Civil and Family Code and Bill No. 143 “On Acts of Civil Status”. Federal Law 143 was approved by State Duma deputies in 1997.
Depending on what procedure for divorce a married couple chooses, different legal norms apply. One of the following schemes can be used:
- simplified divorce (applied with the consent of both spouses and the absence of children under 18 years of age);
- termination through the registry office if there is no consent of the spouse;
- lengthy court proceedings (there are common children, property disputes, etc.).
Division of property during divorce
Spouses, when filing an application for divorce, must jointly enter into it the entire list of their property and give it an assessment. Otherwise, this will have to be done in front of a judge, which will delay the process. A situation where there is a prenuptial agreement or a formalized agreement on the division of property does not give rise to court proceedings. In other words, the judge will consider the issue of division of property only if there is a dispute.
The splitting of the entire array occurs in accordance with the principle of equality; in other words, everything is divided in half.
In this case, the court takes into account that the following is not joint:
- property acquired before marriage
- objects of individual use
- property inherited and received as a gift
- things of minors
- property necessary for a person’s professional activities.
Note! A spouse who discovers he or she is entitled to unaccounted for property has only three years to file a claim.
How to correctly draw up an application for divorce through the registry office
Not only the time saved, but also money depends on how correctly the application is drawn up by the spouse or spouses during a divorce through the registry office, since each time you re-file for divorce you will have to pay the state fee again and again.
What should be indicated in such a statement and what should you pay special attention to when drawing it up?
In addition to the general details of the applying spouse or spouses, i.e. Full name, year and place of birth, be sure to clearly and unambiguously indicate the following:
Motives and reasons for divorce, for example, a court decision or a joint decision to end the marital relationship
Full details of identification documents - passports and documents replacing them
Full details of the marriage certificate - indicating the date of its issue, as well as the authority that registered it
Valid place of registration at the place of residence or stay. If there is no official registration, then the address of the place of actual residence is indicated, for example, on the basis of a residential lease agreement
An indication of what the surnames of each divorcing spouse will be after a divorce
Date of application and signature
Sample application for divorce through local registry office
If for some reason one of the parties to the divorce proceedings cannot put his original signature on this application, then this is done for him either by a person who has a power of attorney (necessarily certified by a notary), or by a guardian appointed by the relevant court decision or by the state social security service. (in case of incapacity of one of the spouses).
In order to correctly draw up an application for divorce through the registry office, you can use numerous samples and examples that can be easily downloaded on our website, as well as on the website of the Ministry of Justice. You can also find forms and examples of filling out such applications on the State Services portal or through the MFC website (multifunctional centers), where you can even fill out such an application electronically, without printing it out.
Divorce through the registry office
To do this, the following conditions must be met:
- Consent of spouses
- No common minor children
Please pay attention! During a divorce, property disputes often arise, which property division lawyers in Moscow help resolve.
If the conditions are met, then you can contact the registry office through the public services portal or in person. Don't forget to pay the state fee. During a divorce through the registry office, disputes about jointly acquired property, the maintenance of a disabled spouse, etc. are not considered. To resolve controversial issues, spouses must go to court.
Basic ways to file for divorce
As much as I would like to say that family life is cloudless and divorce does not exist, this is not so.
If you look at the statistics of divorces over the past few years, you can conclude that almost a third of marriages break up and more than half of them are at the request of the spouse.
Further events will develop depending on whether the spouses have common minor children and whether a decision was made to divorce by mutual desire.
- If there is consent and there are no minor children, then the spouses go to the registry office to submit an application;
- If there are property disputes, there is no consent of one of the spouses, or there are minor children, then only the court can divorce the couple.
So, you can file for divorce:
- In the registry office;
- In the magistrate's court at the defendant's place of residence;
- Through a single portal of public services.
Please note that if everything is simpler with divorce by mutual desire, then in order to divorce unilaterally, sufficient grounds are required.
Divorce through city or district court
If the spouses were unable to reach an agreement on the issues of living together for minor children, on the payment of alimony and the division of joint property, the value of which exceeds 50,000 rubles.
On this resource you can fill out an application electronically and receive a 30% discount on the amount of state duty. The site makes it possible to prepare documents for submission to the registry office, both by mutual agreement and on the basis of a court decision. Below is all the data describing the entire procedure. There, on the Internet portal you will be able to find out what day and time you can come to receive your certificate.
This procedure significantly saves time and money.
Is it possible to get a divorce online through State Services?
Yes, in 2020 there is a system (a single portal of public services) in which spouses can divorce via the Internet if the divorce does not involve onerous disputes.
You need:
- Register on the government services website and confirm your profile (via Russian Post or through the MFC, check on the website). You will need basic documents: Passport;
- SNILS;
- Phone number;
- Sometimes - TIN.
You will also need to upload scans of your documents required for divorce. Their list is presented in the previous paragraph of the article.
- Submit your application for consideration by choosing a method to notify you of a decision (SMS, e-mail).
Subsequently, you will receive a notification of the time and date when you will need to appear at the registry office to sign the application, pay the state fee and receive the Divorce Certificate.
How long does the divorce process last?
In order for a family relationship to be officially considered dissolved, a certain period of time is required. When applying to the registry office, this period is 1 month from the date of submission of the application.
The law does not allow a divorce to be filed earlier, even for good reasons.
In court, divorce proceedings can last six months or more. This is due, firstly, to the fact that the court, at its own discretion, has the right to give the spouses a three-month period for reconciliation or reduce it to one. Practice shows that many couples reunite during this time, and the divorce procedure is no longer required. Secondly, meetings can be postponed and rescheduled many times for various reasons. Therefore, it is very important to quickly come to compromises on issues of raising a child, alimony, and other things, so that the divorce does not become protracted.
The marriage is dissolved from the moment the decision takes legal force, and the court itself sends an extract from the decision to the registry office.
Can they refuse to divorce and for what reasons?
Yes, the registry office or the court can refuse to divorce. True, there are few reasons for refusal, or rather, one:
- It is prohibited to grant a divorce at the request of a man if his wife is pregnant or has a common child under one year old. Exception: he has his wife’s written consent to divorce, or the divorce takes place on the woman’s initiative.
Thus, the Family Code of the Russian Federation protects the rights of pregnant women and young children who find themselves socially unprotected and in need of support from a loved one (father and husband). That's why such a rule was introduced. However, again from statistics, if a woman (pregnant or caring for a child under one year old) files for divorce, then the marriage is dissolved in almost 95-96% of cases.
In other words, if the judge is convinced that the decision to divorce is balanced, in no way spontaneous, and the interests of the child are not infringed, then he will allow the couple to end the family relationship.
Is it possible to get a divorce without a second spouse?
It happens that one of the parties wishing to divorce does not have the opportunity to appear at the registry office, but at the same time gives consent to the divorce, and there are no disputes about the child and property. In this case, both must fill out separate statements, and the spouse who did not appear must certify it. This can be done at the notary or at the employer.
The law also gives the right to divorce at the civil registry office without the presence of the second spouse in the following cases: if the second spouse:
- gone missing
- incompetent
- imprisoned for more than three years,
then the first one can independently participate in the divorce process. In this case, the other party is only notified.
Grounds for unilateral divorce
According to the general rules, you can file for divorce unilaterally in court on the following grounds:
- The second spouse was declared missing/dead by the court;
- The second spouse is serving a sentence in prison for a term of 3 years or more;
- The second husband does not live with his wife, nothing is known about his whereabouts;
- The spouse is permanently residing abroad, or on a long trip/business trip, also abroad.
Sometimes it is allowed to file for divorce without first notifying your spouse of your decision in order to avoid scandals, disputes, and sometimes assault.
Filing a claim
The application comes from the plaintiff who wishes to dissolve the marriage. To do this, he needs to find out what is necessary for a divorce through the court. And present the following documents:
Sample statement of claim for divorce
Writing a statement of claim is not difficult, but it requires care.
- You need to write a statement of claim for divorce, which, in turn, must contain the following set of points: Place and time of marriage registration;
- The presence of children of the spouses and, if any, their age, as well as a mention of whether an agreement was reached between the spouses on the maintenance and upbringing of children;
- Reasons for divorce;
- Indicate, if any, other claims that may be considered simultaneously with the divorce claim.
Which court you file your claim and the above documents depends on the circumstances. The Magistrate's Court hears divorce cases:
- If the couple has no disagreements on any issues;
- If the spouses have already agreed among themselves about with whom the minor child will live;
- If you have a dispute about the division of property, the value of which does not exceed 50,000 thousand rubles.
In other cases, divorce cases are heard by the District Court. After the application is filed in court, a copy of the statement of claim must be provided to the defendant so that he is aware of the upcoming process and can assert his rights and demands.
If one of the spouses does not want to divorce, then the court must find out the reasons for the disagreements that have arisen between the spouses and the purpose of their divorce. The court, if possible, takes the necessary actions to eliminate disagreements between the spouses in order to reach a reconciliation between the parties.
The court may set a period for reconciliation of the spouses within 3 months and postpone the hearing of the case so that the spouses consider whether their decision to divorce is rational. In case of reconciliation, the spouses can forget about the litigation and not go to court.
If attempts at reconciliation do not lead to anything, the court is obliged to issue a divorce decree.
You must then go with the decree and a copy of your passport to the registry office to apply for a divorce certificate.
There are some features in the divorce process specified in Russian law. If your wife is pregnant or your child is under 1 year of age, then some difficulties may arise, namely, the spouse’s written consent to divorce must be attached to the application. A marriage cannot be dissolved with a pregnant woman or raising a one-year-old child, since this puts her in a group of socially unprotected people.
Please note that when divorcing spouses, the court takes into account the opinions of their minor children over 10 years of age. The child can express his point of view about which of his parents he wants to stay with.
A property dispute in court can be avoided if the spouses have previously entered into a marriage contract. However, if this was not done, then all their jointly acquired property is divided equally between them.
In cases where one of the spouses leaves 2 or more children, the court may award in his favor not the part of the property required by law, but more - 2/3 or the entire property.
It is worth noting that a complete list of additional documents that may be required during a divorce is not enshrined in law. The exact list of papers will depend on the requirements of a particular judge.
