Switzerland Divorce and the separation of assets

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1

I am a UK national in the process of divorcing a Swissy.
Prior to the marriage I owned a house in the UK value 100K.
The Value of the house has increased 100K during the marriage
Is my wife entitled to half the increase in value (50k) if i sell before divorce.

or is it the case the house belongs to my own assets (Eigengut) and capital gain of the own assets remains in the own assets.

Does anyone have any experience of this ?

Thanks

2

Depends on what agreements, if any you have.

3

We did nott have any agreement . What I read is

If the couple do not sign a marital agreement, the â€čparticipation in acquired propertyâ€ș regime applies.

Specifically:

  • Each spouse keeps the assets he or she owned before getting married, as well as any assets received as gifts or inherited during the marriage (their ‘own property’).
  • Each person also independently manages the assets accumulated during the marriage (their â€čacquired propertyâ€ș such as a salary or bank interest)
  • In the event of separation or divorce, death or changing to another marital property regime, the â€čacquired propertyâ€ș is divided equally between the ex-spouses.

So this means I keep the profit I accrued on the house during the marrriage ?

4

From my reading of it, yes. Check with a lawyer to be on the safe side though.

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5

I’m no lawyer, but if I were you I’d definitely check with a lawyer if selling “my” house during marriage means I keep the revenue or I have to share it with the spouse.

6

Since you had the property before marriage, any (current, theoretical) increase in value is yours to keep. Only exception: if your wife helped you with her own money to obtain/refurbish etc the property, you will have to proportionaly increase the refund (if say she gave 20k from an inheritance she got towards your mortgage of the property, now that the value has doubled you must refund her 40k). But as it is 100% yours bought with your money it does not apply.

Any rent that you received from the property during the marriage is joint property though, you will have to split that with her.

7

If you own a property before marriage and you sell it during the marriage, you should put the money in a separate bank account. The same with any inheritance or gifts you may receive during the marriage.

This money is yours, not to be shared with your wife in the event of death or divorce. The burden of proof is to the person who claims that something (money, house etc) is theirs to produce the necessary proof. By default, everything is assumed to be shared.

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8

I think this answers your question. You keep the house.

The only complication might be whether you used any acquired assets e.g. to pay off the mortgage.

9

Nothing to add to the house question, but don’t forget about your 2nd pillar. Depending on your spouse’s job and salary, you might lose a big chunk of it. Happenend to me not so long ago, as I was the main bread winner


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10

Just out of curiosity: what about inheritance? Do you also have to split it in equal parts?
Edit: sorry, it was already answered. Thanks, blings.