Family relations in Ukraine can be settled by agreement (agreement) between their participants. Hence, a marriage contract can be concluded by persons who have submitted an application for marriage registration, as well as by spouses.
The marriage contract is concluded in writing and is notarized. The most important feature of a marriage contract is that it may define the property rights and obligations of the spouses differently than provided by the general rules of family law.
In particular, it may be established that certain property which belonged to one of the spouses before the marriage or will be received as a gift during the marriage becomes their joint joint property; the size of the shares in the ownership of the property that will be acquired during the marriage may be determined at the discretion of the spouses; the conditions of division of joint property in case of divorce, and also the order of repayment of debts of each spouse at the expense of joint or separate property can be provided.
The marriage contract may also contain provisions on non-extension of the property acquired by them during the marriage, provisions on joint joint ownership and consider this property as joint partial property or personal private property of each of them. In the marriage contract, the parties may provide for the use of property belonging to both of them or one of them to meet the needs of their children and others.
For example, a provision may be included in the contract stating that the spouse undertakes to maintain incapacitated parents, one of them, or children born out of wedlock, to provide financial assistance to these persons or / and to enable them to live with the spouses by providing a separate a room in a house or apartment, etc.
The husband may, in the marriage contract, oblige the wife to be frugal with the family budget, to keep records of the expenses incurred for a certain amount, and to inform him of these expenses. The wife may oblige the husband to provide for his family to live in a separate apartment or house, separate from his parents.
However, in practice, the marriage contract is primarily used not to regulate cohabitation and use of property, but in case of severance of marriage. Therefore, undoubtedly, in the marriage contract it is possible to define a possible order of division of property, including after divorce. In this case, in the event of a divorce, lengthy property division litigation can be avoided by having a better chance of maintaining a good relationship after the divorce.
The marriage contract may establish the general term of its validity, as well as the duration of certain rights and obligations. The marriage contract may establish the validity of the contract or its individual conditions after the termination of the marriage.