Title V: Marriage contracts and matrimonial property regimes

The debts for which the spouses were liable on the day of the celebration of their marriage, or which are encumbered by the successions and gifts which devolve upon them during the marriage, remain personal to them, both in capital and in arrears or interest.

The creditors of either spouse, in the case of the preceding article, may pursue payment only against their debtor’s own property and income. They may, however, also seize community property where the movable property which belonged to their debtor on the day of the marriage or which fell to him by succession or gift has been merged into the common patrimony and can no longer be identified according to the…

Reward is due to the community that has discharged a spouse’s personal debt.

The payment of debts for which each spouse is liable, for whatever reason, during the community, may always be pursued out of the community property, unless there has been fraud on the part of the debtor spouse and bad faith on the part of the creditor, except for the reward due to the community if applicable.

The earnings and wages of a spouse may only be seized by his or her spouse’s creditors if the obligation was incurred for the maintenance of the household or the education of the children, in accordance with Article 220. When earnings and wages are paid into a current or deposit account, these may only be seized under conditions defined by decree.

Each of the spouses may only commit his or her own property and income, by a guarantee or loan, unless these have been contracted with the express consent of the other spouse who, in this case, does not commit his or her own property.

The community which has discharged a debt for which it could be sued by virtue of the preceding articles is nevertheless entitled to a reward, whenever this commitment had been contracted in the personal interest of one of the spouses, as well as for the acquisition, conservation or improvement of a property of its own.

The community is entitled to a reward, after deduction, where applicable, of the profit it has derived, when it has paid fines incurred by a spouse as a result of criminal offences, or reparation and costs to which he or she had been sentenced for civil torts or quasi-torts. It is similarly entitled to a reward if the debt it has discharged had been contracted by one of the spouses…

Where a debt has entered the community on the part of only one of the spouses, it may not be pursued against the other’s own property. If there is joint and several liability, the debt is deemed to have entered the community on the part of both spouses.