With the adoption of the Marriage and Family Relations Act of 1977, the Slovenian legislator regulated the property relations between unmarried couples by granting informal relationships the same family law implications as are applicable to a marriage. It is necessary for the legal recognition of the informal relationship that two people of different sexes, who do not get married, stay together in a relationship for a longer period of time. There also must be no reason why their marriage would be invalid. The most important consequence of the informal relationship in the property field is the creation of community property. Community property is property acquired by the unmarried couple for the duration of the informal relationship with work or for pay. The work can be done directly (performing a lucrative activity) or indirectly (care for the household and children). Joint ownership is created on the couple's community property, which means that unless they agree otherwise, the unmarried couple can dispose of community property only in a common and consensual manner. Property acquired by an unmarried partner before the commencement of the informal relationship and property acquired during the duration of the informal relationship but not for pay, is his separate property, with which he can dispose freely. Adoption of the new Family Code brings quite a few changes in the sphere of property of the unmarried couples, the most important of which is the introduction of the contract on the regulation of property relations, by which the unmarried couples agree on their property relations differently, as foreseen by the law.
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