Case Summary:

Ms. Liu met Mr. Wang through an introduction and fell in love. After a few months, they got married quickly. Mr. Wang worked and traveled frequently out of town, while Ms. Liu worked and lived locally. Despite the distance, their relationship remained strong and they soon had a child, Xiao Wang. In 2022, as Xiao Wang approached school age, Ms. Liu and Mr. Wang had significant disagreements over educational issues for their child, leading to frequent arguments and growing resentment. Feeling exhausted, the couple began to live separately. After lengthy negotiations, they reached an agreement on divorce, custody, and property division: they had a total of 6 million yuan in bank deposits and one property in Shenzhen, with the down payment paid by Mr. Wang and the mortgage repaid jointly by both after marriage. Custody of the child was awarded to Mr. Wang, with the property and deposits divided such that Mr. Wang received 80% and Ms. Liu received 20%. They signed a divorce agreement, and Ms. Liu agreed to comply with its terms. After the divorce, Ms. Liu believed that the property division plan severely damaged her legitimate rights and interests. To recover her losses promptly, Ms. Liu wisely chose the Dao Hua Family Law Firm, hoping to re-divide the property and gain custody of the child.

Case Process:

After accepting the委托, the Dao Hua Family Law Firm promptly began working on the case, carefully reviewing the case materials and collecting and obtaining their financial situation during their cohabitation. After analyzing the divorce agreement and the property situation after the divorce, the Dao Hua Family Law Firm quickly discovered many loopholes in the divorce agreement. According to the divorce agreement, Ms. Liu was only entitled to 20% of the property, although the down payment was paid by Mr. Wang, the mortgage was repaid by Ms. Liu throughout the marriage, and the amount repaid on the mortgage was significant after many years of marriage. Since the purchase price and monthly repayment records were in Mr. Wang's possession, the uncertainty of the property division after the divorce was very high. Through the organization of trivial evidence such as WeChat chat records and recorded evidence, the Dao Hua Family Law Firm successfully proved that Ms. Liu contributed 3 million yuan to the property and that she had no other properties under her name, aiming to persuade the court to award the property to Ms. Liu. This major breakthrough dealt a heavy blow to the男方, who, under immense psychological pressure,主动提出调解请求. After the Dao Hua Family Law Firm argued reasonably, mediating between legal and emotional considerations, the男方 finally made significant concessions. After several months of careful work by the Dao Hua Family Law Firm, they finally resolved Ms. Liu's property, child custody, and emotional entanglements from this marriage.

Case Outcome: The parties reached an agreement to sign a mediation agreement, with custody of the child awarded to the男方, the男方 receiving 40% of the property and deposits, and the女方 receiving 60% of the property and deposits, without the need for additional child support payments to the男方.

Dao Hua Analysis:

Through the efforts of the Dao Hua Family Law Firm, Ms. Liu's property division ratio was ultimately increased from 20% to 60%. An important legal issue in this case is worth noting, namely, the ownership of commercial housing purchased by one party before marriage and jointly repaid by the couple after marriage, as well as how to divide it. Firstly, the identification of the ownership of the property with the title certificate obtained before marriage and the protection of the property rights of the non-ownership party are stipulated in Article 209 of the Civil Code: The establishment, alteration, transfer, and extinction of immovable property rights shall take effect upon registration in accordance with law; without registration, they do not take effect, except as otherwise provided by law. According to the provisions of the Civil Code, registration is a statutory condition for the acquisition of immovable property rights, and without registration, there is no statutory effect for the establishment or alteration of property rights. The property certificate or real estate registration certificate is a mark of real estate registration, and its acquisition marks the acquisition of property ownership. Article 78 of the "Interpretation (I) of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Marriage and Family Article of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China" provides: If one party to the marriage enters into a real estate purchase contract before marriage, pays the down payment with personal property, and takes out a loan from the bank, and repays the loan with the couple's joint property after marriage, and the real estate is registered in the name of the party who paid the down payment, the real estate shall be disposed of by agreement between the parties upon divorce. If the parties cannot reach an agreement in accordance with the preceding paragraph, the people's court may decide that the real estate shall belong to the party registered, and the unpaid loan shall be the personal debt of the party registered. The payments made by both parties for the joint repayment of the loan and the corresponding increase in property value shall be compensated to the other party by the party registered upon divorce in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 1, Article 1087 of the Civil Code.

In this case, the男方 purchased the property through a mortgage before marriage and registered the property as immovable property before marriage, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code, the property should belong to the buyer, Mr. Wang, as his personal property before marriage. However, the portion of the loan repaid by both parties after marriage should be considered as the couple's joint property. In the case of property appreciation, the benefits that Ms. Liu should receive can be obtained according to the proportion of her contribution to the total value of the property. By determining each party's property benefits based on their actual contributions, this approach achieves fairness while solving the legal issues related to the acquisition of immovable property rights through registration.