When exactly does the absolute community of property begin between spouses?

One date, chosen by law rather than by the couple

The rule is deliberately rigid. The community shall commence at the precise moment that the marriage is celebrated, which means the ceremony, not the signing of the licence application, not the day the couple began living together, and not the date the certificate was later registered. Registration records a marriage; it does not create one. Where a couple lived together for years before the wedding, the community regime still begins on the wedding day, and the years before it are governed by an entirely different set of rules on unions outside marriage.

Why the parties cannot move the date

The second sentence closes the obvious workaround: any stipulation, express or implied, for the commencement of the regime at any other time is void. Spouses may choose, before the wedding, to be governed by a different property regime altogether through a marriage settlement. What they may not do is keep the community regime but backdate or postdate its start, whether by a clause in a document or by a private understanding that the first two years would not count. The choice the law allows is which regime, not when it switches on.

What actually turns on the moment

The date decides which pot an asset falls into, and that in turn decides who can sell it, whose creditors can reach it and how it is divided if the marriage ends. It also sets the reference point for the rule that the community consists of the property owned by the spouses at the time of the celebration of the marriage or acquired afterwards. So a purchase completed the week before the wedding and one completed the week after can end up in the same place for one reason and in different places for another. The moment fixes the frame.

Proving the moment when it is disputed

Because everything hinges on a single point in time, the document that carries that time matters more than people expect. The marriage certificate as recorded in the civil registry states the date of celebration and is the usual starting point; deeds, receipts, bank records and registry entries then have to be lined up against it. Where the couple married abroad, or where the certificate was registered late, the gap between celebration and recording is exactly the kind of detail a creditor or an heir will later probe. Gather the dated documents in order before consulting a lawyer.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

• Alain M. Diño vs. Ma. Caridad L. Diño, G.R. No. 178044, January 19, 2011 — read the decision on LawPhil →

Related provisions

• Family Code, Article 88 — When Absolute Community Begins