Alimony is an amount of money, that one person is required by law to pay it to another person, in order to help him/her to survive, because he/she is not able to do it by him/herself. The Marriage and Family Relations Act stipulates that the right to the alimony belong to a dependent spouse, who is unemployed without his fault. Alimony can be requested already during the marriage, during the divorce proceedings, or with a special lawsuit in a year after the divorce has become final or in a year after the termination of their cohabitation. Alimony can be determined only by the request of the beneficiary. When determining the amount of alimony, the needs of the beneficiary and the abilities of the debtor are taken into account. In practice, alimony is determined in monetary amount and for the future. The spouses can reach, in the case of a divorce, an alimony agreement in front of the notary. The court may also award the alimony for a limited period, only until the beneficiary is adapted to a new position and arranges the situation. The courts had developed an institute of symbolic alimony, which is paid to a spouse who, is at time of divorce still able to maintain him/herself, but it is expected that his/hers social security will get worse in the future, due to a certain circumstances. Both the beneficiary and the debtor may request an increase, reduction or repeal of alimony, due to the changed circumstances. The right to alimony ceases if the beneficiary acquires sufficient sources to support him/herself, if he/she enters a new marriage or cohabitates. The right to alimony is guarded and protected by the executive and criminal law, it also taken into an account in the inheritance law and in international private law. The statutory arrangement of the right of a divorced spouse to the alimony, applies to all forms of a living communities that can be created by two individuals (cohabitation, (open) civil union).
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