Alina Esmanskaya told Pravo.ru about the role of prenuptial agreements in the presence of debts owed by one of the spouses

If the prenuptial agreement is not properly drafted, the assets of one spouse may be used to settle the liabilities of the second. To avoid this, when preparing a document, it is important to take into account all the details.

Thus, Alina Esmanskaya, Associate of Private Wealth practice at Maxima Legal, stressed the need to provide security in the contract for the performance of the obligations solely by the debtor. “Then in case of non-fulfillment the creditor will receive only the debtor’s personal property which serves as a security for the loan obligations,” the expert explained to portal Pravo.ru.

Furthermore, the moment of entering into the prenuptial agreement – either before or after the debt obligation appears – is of great importance when resolving a dispute between the creditor and the spouse-debtor.

As an example Alina Esmanskaya cited case No. 88-26455/2021 in which the creditor considered that the spouses purchased two cars during the marriage and thus the cars became joint property. But according to the prenuptial agreement, which was made prior to the loan commitment, the vehicles were considered personal property of the debtor’s spouse. As a result, the court rejected the claim.

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