The lawyer gave advice on protecting the business from the claims of the former spouse after the divorce

On October 4, Sergey Ramazanov, a lawyer and partner at the Strategiya Law Bureau, told Izvestia about how a former spouse can claim a share in a business created after the dissolution of a marriage.

According to him, the divorce process is usually accompanied by the division of property acquired during the marriage. A business created after a divorce is, as a general rule, the personal property of its founder and is not subject to division. However, there are exceptions when an ex-spouse can make claims.

First, if the new business is built on assets acquired jointly during the marriage. For example, the couple could develop a project, draw up a business plan and prepare documents, but not implement the idea. After the divorce, one of the spouses registered the business for himself using these joint resources. In this case, the second spouse may demand the allocation of a share or compensation of the market value.

Secondly, the expert added, claims are possible if the capitalization of the business after the divorce increased due to joint assets that were not separated, or intangible contributions from the former spouse, such as a business idea, copyrights or patents. For example, the property left after the marriage could be used for business development, or one of the spouses hid income, which gives the right to demand compensation.

"It follows from the Family Code of the Russian Federation (Article 38) that a three-year statute of limitations applies to the claims of spouses on the division of common property of spouses whose marriage is dissolved. However, according to the explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (Plenum Resolution No. 15), the three-year limitation period for claims on the division of property that is the common joint property of spouses whose marriage is dissolved should be calculated not from the time of termination of the marriage, but from the day when the person learned or should have learned about the violation of his right." Ramazanov said.

To protect assets after a divorce, the lawyer recommends that a complete division of property be carried out through a notarial agreement or a court decision indicating everything divided. It is also important to finance a new business solely with funds received after the divorce, inherited or donated personally, and all financial transactions must be documented to exclude claims from the former spouse.

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Irina Kalinina, managing partner of the international legal organization Legal World, told Izvestia on February 28 what property is considered common and personal, how debts are divided in the family and what needs to be done to avoid financial disputes. According to her, housing that was owned by a husband or wife before marriage, real estate received during marriage as a gift or privatized, property or money inherited during marriage, and things that each spouse uses individually are not subject to division.

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