Donation of things from the BSM without the consent of the other spouse

In general, it cannot be said whether the consent of the other spouse is generally required for the donation of things belonging to the community property. This fact will always need to be evaluated with regard to the specifics of the concrete case, whether it will concern a routine matter or not. Indeed, a different situation would arise in the case of donating common food, for example to charity, and another in the case where one of the spouses wished to donate a passenger car or a real estate property to a third party. For example, the consent of the other spouse will always be required for the transfer of a real estate property.

In order to evaluate the donation of a specific thing as a routine matter for which the consent of the other spouse is not required, we believe that it must, at the very least, be a thing that is not valuable. Otherwise, it would already concern other than a routine matter, for which the consent of the other spouse is required. This follows from the Civil Code, specifically from the provision of Section 145 (1) of Act No. 40/1964 Coll. the Civil Code, as amended, which states that: “Routine matters concerning common things may be settled by either spouse. In other matters, the consent of both spouses is required; otherwise, the legal act is void.”

Even if a deed of gift were concluded by only one of the spouses, it is necessary to say that this will not constitute an absolute nullity of the legal act, but merely a relative voidness pursuant to the provision of Section 40a of the Civil Code. The voidness must be invoked (by filing a lawsuit in court) within the general limitation period, the length of which is three years. That is to say, the act (the deed of gift) will be viewed as valid unless the other spouse invokes its voidness.