July, 2019.

In every asset, there are rights and liabilities for the owner. If you buy a car, you must pay at the point of delivery. If you buy a house, you may take a mortgage loan and pay back in 30 years. If you have children, your liability lasts a lifetime.

Under the Danish Marriage Law (Lov om ægtefællers økonomiske forhold) article 3, each partner is liable for his/her own debts, which includes debts from before and during the marriage. This rule is relevant, if your partner has a business, and business liabilities. Your partner may go bankrupt and the creditors will not be able to take your part of asset in the process. Furthermore, you are not liable for the other’s debts, for instance: child support, old loan or gambling debt. Of course, when you are married, you may share the burden, but it is on voluntary basis rather than obligatory.

The general rule says that the partner’s debt is his/her own, but if you put your tangible asset (car, equipment) into the partner’s business operation, you are bound by agreements your partner makes with a 3^rd party. Your only chance of keeping the asset is if the 3^rd party has made the agreement in bad faith, e.g. known that your partner does not have the right over the asset.

In the case of separation or divorce, common debts will be deducted from common owned assets in order to calculate the net asset, which will be distributed equally between partners. In Denmark, partners are allowed to make separate agreement on asset in marriage; therefore only the net common owned assets are will be divided between partners, not assets under separate agreement. If a partner’s net asset is positive (asset is larger than private debt), she/he will have to share half of the positive asset to the other partner. If both have negative net asset, there will be no distribution of net asset between partners.  

Children are the most important assets and desirable liabilities in a divorce. It is usual to see couple fighting over the custody of the children. Even if on partner is willing to take all responsibilities over the children, unlikely the other partner will let go his/her parent’s liability (and rights). In Denmark, custody of children is based on voluntary agreement between partners. If the partners cannot agree on the matter, they can apply for help from Agency of Family Law (Familierethuset). Usually, the children will stay with each parent equally half of the time each month, for example every second week. If one partner does not pay child support, the other partner can get help from Udbetaling Danmark, who will pay the amount and register at the same time the payment as public debt on the individual.