Divorce by mutual consent - Agreement deposited with a notary

Verified 30 mai 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

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Divorce by mutual consent by agreement filed with a notary allows you to divorce without going before a judge.

Attention: if you are a foreigner, check if your country of origin accepts a divorce that is not validated by a judge.

Step-by-step approach

The lawyer is obligatory to divorce by mutual consent.

Every husband duty choose your lawyer.

Who shall I contact

You must sign a fee agreement with your lawyer to to fix his fees.

If you don't have enough resources, you can legal aid to cover all or part of these costs.

You don't have to explain the reasons for the divorce.

Your lawyers will write the draft convention for you divorce.

In particular, the agreement shall include the following information:

FYI  

until the agreement is lodged with a notary, the spouses may bring an application before the court for body separation or judicial divorce.

Each lawyer shall send the draft agreement by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt to the spouse whom he or she is assisting.

You have a cooling-off period of 15 days.

You have to wait until the end of this period to sign the convention.

The Convention is signed by the spouses and their lawyers in 3 copies.

Each spouse shall keep an original of the agreement together with its supporting documents. On the 3rde original is for the notary.

In the 7 days who follow the signature, one of the lawyers must send the 3e copy of the agreement to a notary.

The notary checks the presence of the mandatory indications in the agreement and whether the reflection period of 15 days has been respected.

The notary classifies the agreement to preserve it and avoid its loss or destruction. It is said that it places the convention among the minutes.

This formality of filing is done without an appointment with the notary.

The deposit of the agreement with the notary allows the agreement to be given certain date and enforceability, i.e. the Convention is now applicable.

Please note

if you lose your original of the divorce agreement, the notary may issue you a copy.

The mention of divorce in the margins of each spouse's marriage certificate and birth certificate shall be obligatory.

This notice is used to require third parties to comply with your divorce agreement. It is said to make divorce “enforceable” against third parties.

Normally, your lawyer should take steps to update your marital status.

If your lawyer doesn't do that, you need to update your marital status. The request to update is to be sent to the town hall of the place of marriage and must be accompanied by a certificate of deposit issued by the notary.

Who shall I contact

If the marriage certificate has been issued abroad, the request to update the civil status must be sent to the Central Civil Status Service (Scec).

Who shall I contact

The City Council or the Scec shall forward the information to the birth authorities of the spouses so that they too can update the birth certificates.

FYI  

You can also update your family booklet.

The cost of divorce varies with lawyers' fees, goods to be shared, notary's fee and procedure.

Each spouse must pay his or her lawyer and his or her fees are set freely with him or her.

A spouse with insufficient resources to initiate divorce proceedings may apply legal aid. If you receive full legal aid, you don't have to pay anything.

The divorce agreement lays down the apportionment of the costs of divorce between the spouses. The agreement may not charge the party receiving legal aid more than half of the costs of the divorce. If the agreement is not clear, the costs of divorce are shared by half.

The deposit at the notary of the agreement amounts to €41.20 excl. tax (€49.44 TTC).

Notary fees may be added if the agreement includes a statement of settlement relating to immovable property or an allocation of immovable property under a compensatory benefit.

FYI  

Divorcing spouses must share the property they had together and a tax applies on the value of the shared property. This is called the right of sharing.

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