What about a couple who lives together as husband and wife, but
does not have the marriage registration? What kind of property
rights and obligations do they have without the marriage
certificate?
Article 21 of the Code defines marriage as a family union of a
woman and a man, which is registered in the state Registry office.
At the first reading, the law could be interpreted that if a woman
and a man live together as a family, but without registering such
relations as a marriage, this alone is not sufficient grounds to
trigger spousal rights and obligations. However, Article 74 of the
Code clearly provides the following:
(1) if a woman or a man jointly reside as one family, but they
are not married to each other and any other person, the property
acquired during such joint residence belongs to them under the
common property right, unless otherwise stipulated by the written
agreement concluded between them;
