Maintenance obligation between spouses

The maintenance obligation between spouses ceases upon the dissolution of the marriage, i.e., by divorce or by the death of one of the spouses, or by their declaration of death.

The maintenance obligation between spouses is regulated in Section 71 of the Family Act, under which “Spouses have a mutual maintenance obligation. If one of the spouses does not fulfill this obligation, the court, upon the petition of either of them, shall determine its scope so that the standard of living of both spouses is inherently equal. When deciding on the determination of the scope of the maintenance obligation, the court shall take into account the care of the household.”

The maintenance obligation between spouses lasts throughout the entire marriage and regardless of whether the spouses live together or not. The essence of the maintenance obligation between spouses is the preservation of an equal standard of living for both spouses. If spouses do not fulfill their mutual maintenance obligation voluntarily, one of the spouses may seek (by petition to the court) the determination of the maintenance obligation against the other spouse. In this case, the law does not allow one of the spouses to be placed at a disadvantage, for example, as a result of caring for the household or children.

In the case of a divorce, the maintenance obligation ceases upon the legal force of the court’s decision on the divorce of the marriage due to the termination of the marital relationship, and therefore the condition of marriage for the purposes of determining the maintenance obligation between spouses is no longer met.

From a practical point of view, in the event of a divorce, in order to prevent misunderstandings, we recommend that you deliver a photocopy of the final and effective divorce judgment to the court with a short cover letter. In this letter, it is necessary to state that you are notifying the court that the marriage has terminated and thereby your maintenance obligation to your wife has also ceased. The letter must include the date, your signature, and also the case file number of the proceedings in which the maintenance obligation for your wife was imposed on you (you can find the case file number on the decision determining the maintenance).

Maintenance between spouses must be distinguished from maintenance for a divorced spouse. “Alimony for the support of a divorced spouse is an independent claim with different conditions for its awarding and with a different scope than is the case with the claim for a mutual maintenance obligation during the existence of the marriage. If the court is to decide on a claim to establish a maintenance obligation pursuant to Section 91 of the Family Act, then this obligation can be established only for the period for which the marriage of the parties to the proceedings actually lasted.” (Judgment of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, Case File No. 4Cz 7/1967)