Book III: Different ways of acquiring property

The spouses may not, one without the other, lease a rural business or a building for commercial, industrial or craft use dependent on the community. Other leases on community property may be entered into by one spouse only and are subject to the rules laid down for leases entered into by the usufructuary.

If one of the spouses is permanently unable to express his or her will, or if his or her management of the community attests to incapacity or fraud, the other spouse may apply to the courts to be substituted for him or her in the exercise of his or her powers. The provisions of articles 1445 to 1447 are applicable to this application. The spouse, thus empowered by justice, has…

If one of the spouses has exceeded his or her powers over the community property, the other, unless he or she has ratified the act, may apply for its annulment. The action for annulment is open to the spouse for two years from the day on which he or she became aware of the act, but may never be brought more than two years after the dissolution of the community.

Each spouse has administration and enjoyment of his or her own property and may dispose of it freely.

If one of the spouses is permanently unable to express his or her will, or if he or she jeopardises the interests of the family, either by allowing his or her own property to wither, or by dissipating or misappropriating the income he or she derives from it, he or she may, at the request of his or her spouse, be divested of the rights of administration and enjoyment granted…

If, during the marriage, one spouse entrusts the other with the administration of his or her own property, the rules of the power of attorney apply. The mandating spouse is, however, exempt from rendering an account of the fruits, where the power of attorney does not expressly require him or her to do so.

When one of the spouses takes over the management of the other’s own property, with the other’s knowledge, and nevertheless without opposition on his part, he is deemed to have received a tacit mandate, covering acts of administration and enjoyment, but not acts of disposal. This spouse is answerable to the other for his management as a mandatary. He is, however, accountable only for existing fruits; for those he may…

The community owes a reward to the owner spouse whenever it has benefited from own property. This is the case, in particular, when it has received own money or money from the sale of own property, without it having been used or reused. If a dispute is raised, proof that the community has benefited from own property may be administered by any means, even by testimony and presumptions.

Use or reinvestment is deemed to be made with regard to a spouse whenever, at the time of an acquisition, he has declared that it was made from his own funds or from the alienation of an own, and to take the place of use or reinvestment. In the absence of such a declaration in the deed, the use or reinvestment takes place only by the agreement of the spouses,…

If the use or reinvestment is made in advance, the property acquired is the community’s own, provided that the sums expected from the community’s own assets are paid to the community within five years of the date of the deed.