Dear Nthabi
I am married in community of property and my husband has been retrenched.
With the retrenchment and pension money he received, he is busy buying assets for his family members and he has not given me a cent.
We are still married and I want to know if it is possible for the court to help me get some of this money, even if we are not getting a divorce.
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Nthabi says
As a spouse married in community of property, 50% of your husband’s monies belong to you.
If your husband is busy giving away money or using money to buy third parties assets without your consent, you need to urgently appoint an attorney.
The attorney will bring a court application for an immediate separation of the joint estate. This is a different application from a divorce, as well as a different application from changing a marriage contract from in community of property to out of community of property.
This application serves to have the joint estate divided, even though the parties are still married to each other.
In order to succeed, you need to prove to the court that your interests in the joint estate are being prejudiced, that this is being caused by your husband’s reckless expenditure, and that he is doing it without your consent.
Nthabiseng Monareng holds LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Nthabi has more than 10 years’ experience in the legal field, specialising in family law. She’s written books on family law and is a family mediator.
