A resident of Kyiv region turned to Ivan Vorona, a paralegal of the BPD system, for help with a question about establishing the fact of living in one family with her husband.
Her story: Natalya worked at the same enterprise with her cohabitant. They lived together in a civil marriage since January 2019 at the same address in Kyiv region, during this period the husband transferred money to Natalya’s card every month. And since October 2019, they lived in the woman’s house, which is her property, had a joint family budget and ran a joint household. This fact was confirmed by the act of inspection of the place of residence of the local self-government deputy.
In February 2024, her civil husband went to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and in June he went missing.
None of them have children or other close relatives. A resident of Kyiv region applied to protect her rights as a civil wife of a military serviceman without registering an official marriage.
About the paralegal
Ivan Vorona is a deputy of the Yagotyn city council and a paralegal of the BPD system. He promotes the protection of the rights of fellow countrymen, helps with the execution of documents and solving life problems.
Since 2014, Ivan has been volunteering, supporting the community and cooperating with the Yagotyn legal aid bureau. His goal is to help people know and protect their rights.
Algorithm for establishing the fact of living together as a family of a man and a woman without marriage
Ivan found out that Natalya has the right to secondary free assistance. And he helped collect some evidence and documents, in particular, to contact a deputy of the city council to make an inspection report of the place of residence, to agree with neighbors so that they confirm the fact of living together, to take bank account statements. He and Natalya applied to the BPD system with all the documents – and the fact of living together as a family of a man and a woman without marriage was officially established.
In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of Persons Missing under Special Circumstances” close relatives and family members of a person missing under special circumstances are husband, wife, father, mother, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, stepson, stepdaughter, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather, great-grandmother, grandson, granddaughter, great-grandson, great-granddaughter, adoptive parent or adoptee, guardian or custodian, a person under guardianship or care, as well as persons who live together, are connected by a common life and have mutual rights and obligations, including persons who live together but are not married.
If a woman and a man live in the same family, but are not married to each other or in any other marriage, the property acquired by them during their cohabitation belongs to them by right of joint ownership, unless otherwise established by a written agreement between them (Part 1, Article 74 of the Family Code of Ukraine).
To establish the fact of cohabitation with a civil husband/wife, it is necessary to apply to the court at the place of residence.
To establish cohabitation as a single family, the court takes into account:
– testimony of witnesses about the cohabitation of the de facto spouses and their common life;
– documents regarding the place of registration (de facto residence) of the husband and wife;
– photographs of certain events;
– documents confirming the acquisition of property for the benefit of the family, the expenditure of funds for common purposes (fiscal checks, purchase and sale agreements, bank account opening agreements, deposit agreements and other written evidence).
The application for the court to consider cases on the establishment of facts of legal significance must indicate: what fact the applicant requests to be established and for what purpose; the reasons for the impossibility of obtaining or restoring documents certifying this fact; evidence confirming the fact (Article 328 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine).
A person pays a court fee for filing an application. The cost of the court fee for filing an application by an individual in the order of separate proceedings is 0.2 of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons – as of January 1, 2024 – 605 UAH. 60 kopecks.
Family Code of Ukraine https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2947-14#n375
Civil Code of Ukraine https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/435-15#n3170
Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1618-15#n8370
Law of Ukraine On the Legal Status of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2505-19#Text
Who are paralegals of the free legal aid system and how to join this community?
Do you want to help residents of your community resolve legal issues?
Join the BPD Volunteer project!
It is not necessary to be a lawyer and can be easily combined with work: https://legalaid.gov.ua/volonter-bpd/
The project is implemented by the Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation and the Coordination Center for the Provision of Free Legal Aid with the support of the Mott Foundation.
