Land registry and family home protective rules
Land Registry and the family home protective rules & Other Overriding mandatory provisions in family law
According to Marriage Act (234/1929) 38§ a spouse shall not convey a real property intended for use as the common home of the spouses, unless the other spouse consents to the same in writing. However, the consent of the other spouse shall not be needed, if the property to be conveyed is mainly intended for some other use and if the home and the property on which it stands cannot be excluded from the conveyance without causing considerable reduction in the value of the real property.
And according to Marriage Act (234/1929) 133§ when property is situated in Finland, the same spouse’s consent mentioned in 38§ is mandatory to the transmission or modification common home of the spouses even if the matrimonial property regime is governed by the law of foreign state.
If there’s a court decision on which the transmission or modification is based on, the content of the court decision defines which are the requirements to register.
Practical case
Pietro had inherited a house from his parents’ succession. He is registered in the land book as sole owner. After that, he marries Sofía and they establish their family home at that house, where they live with their two little children.
Now, Pietro has received a very interesting offer for the house from an Investing company called Paradise Rooms SA, so he decides to sell it. Pietro and the representative director of the company have signed the purchase contract before the notary and have sent it to the Land Registry to register the new owner.
The registrar checks from the Population Information System, if Pietro is married and where the spouses have their family home adress.
When the property Pietro owns is used as a common family house of the spouses, according to Finnish Marriage Act 38§ it’s mandatory to have a consent from Sofia to sell the property. This section 38 of the Finnish Marriage Act is applied to the conveyance irrespective of the law which is otherwise applied to the matrimonial property regimes between Pietro and Sofia. The registration cannot be made to the buyer without Sofia’s consent. The written consent must be shown to the registrar before the registration of the ownership to the buyer.
Lack of necessary consent from Sofia can be reason for dormant registration.
The answer is the same if dealing with registered partnership.
