Guardian of a minor

Since, pursuant to the Civil Code, the legal capacity of minors is limited only to certain legal acts, a portion of legal acts may be performed on their behalf by a legal representative (most frequently a parent). A specific situation arises if the parent could be in a conflict of interest in connection with the performance of the legal act. In such cases, approval of the minor’s legal act by a court is required.

In the event that a guardian acts on behalf of the child within the scope of property administration, the scope of their authority to act on behalf of the minor is defined in the decision by which they were appointed. Unless the scope of such acts also includes the transfer of real estate or a part thereof, approval of the legal act by a court will likewise be required.

The procedure for the approval of a minor’s legal act by a court is regulated by Act No. 161/2015 Coll., the Civil Non-Adversarial Procedure Code. The petition to commence proceedings must be filed with the district court in whose territorial jurisdiction the minor has their residence at the time of the commencement of the proceedings, as determined by an agreement of the parents or by another method. The petition is not subject to a court fee. The role of the court is to assess whether the transfer of the real estate under the proposed conditions is in the best interest of the minor.

Hello, The entrustment of a minor child into the care of their grandparents is enabled by the institute of foster personal care, enshrined in Section 45 et seq. of Act No. 36/2005 Coll., the Family Act (hereinafter referred to as the “FA”).

The purpose of substitute care as a whole is to replace “the personal care of parents for a minor child in cases where the parents do not provide it or cannot provide it (Section 44, Paragraph 1 of the FA).”

As Bános explains, “The institute of foster personal care comes into consideration if the parents of the minor child do not want to or, respectively, cannot temporarily care for their child. Subjective reasons for such a decision may lie in alcoholism, drug addiction of the parents, in their lack of interest in the minor child, and in their neglect of the child. Objective reasons for ordering temporary foster personal care include long-term illness of the parents, detention of the sole living parent, a long-term stay abroad, etc. (Bános: Family Act – EPI Commentary).”

Substitute care “may arise only by a court decision, and its content consists of rights and obligations defined by law or by a court decision (Section 44, Paragraph 2 of the FA).”

Pursuant to Section 45, Paragraph 1 of the FA, “If the interest of the minor child so requires, the court may entrust the minor child into foster personal care. The person to whom the minor child may be so entrusted can only be a natural person with permanent residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic who: has full legal capacity, possesses personal prerequisites, in particular health, personality, and moral prerequisites, and by their way of life and the life of the persons living with them in the household, guarantees that they will exercise the foster personal care in the interest of the minor child.”

Pursuant to Section 45, Paragraph 2 of the FA, “When entrusting a minor child into foster personal care, the court shall primarily give preference to a relative of the minor child, provided that they meet the established prerequisites.” Grandparents to whom a minor child is entrusted into their personal care are concurrently obliged to “exercise personal care for the minor child to the same extent as it is exercised by parents (Section 45, Paragraph 4 of the FA).” However, they may represent the minor and administer their property only in ordinary matters (Section 45, Paragraph 4 of the FA). Entrusting a minor into foster personal care likewise does not prevent their parents, who remain their legal representatives, from maintaining contact with their child and exercising other parental rights and obligations, but “only to the extent that they do not belong to the person to whom the minor child was entrusted into foster personal care (Section 45, Paragraph 6 of the FA).” Foster personal care also does not relieve parents of their maintenance obligation toward the minor (Section 45, Paragraph 7 of the FA).