Prenuptial Agreements or Capitulations in Colombia

Published on: March 29, 2023

Reading time: 3 min

Prenuptial Agreements or Capitulations in Colombia

These are legal agreements entered into between the future spouses prior to marriage regarding the assets that will or will not enter into the marital partnership.

These agreements apply to both movable and immovable property.

They are regulated in the Civil Code in Title XXII. The following requirements must be met in order for them to be carried out:

They must be performed prior to the celebration of the marriage.
They must be executed through a public deed before a notary public.
The public deed must contain the signature of both spouses and the notary.
The deed must also contain the express declaration of the assets and debts of each of the spouses.
It must be registered in the civil registry prior to the celebration of the marriage.

It is essential that the couple receive counseling from a specialized lawyer This is so that the couple understands the legal implications of the capitulations and the effects of the capitulations on their property rights during the marriage and in the event of separation.

In order to carry out the process of marriage contracts, the following process must be carried out:

Hire a lawyer specialized in family law to provide advice and draft the document of marital contracts.
With the document of marital contracts drafted, the spouses must go to a notary’s office to subscribe and sign the public deed, for which they must bring their identity documents and the documents that prove the ownership of the assets to be included in the agreement.
The spouses must request the notary to register the public deed in the civil registry, for which they must provide proof of payment of the corresponding notary fees.
Once registered in the civil registry, a registration number is assigned and a certificate is issued to certify the existence of the document. It is recommended that spouses request a copy.

It is important to emphasize that this procedure must be done before the celebration of the marriage because, once celebrated, it can no longer be done or modified.

The fixed costs of this procedure are:

Taxes and notary fees.
Notary fees derived from the public deed.
Fees of the attorney providing advice to the spouses.
Registration cats in the civil registry.

The value may vary depending on the aforementioned costs in each specific case, however, it is between $500,000 and $1,500,000 Colombian pesos.

The duration of this process will depend on factors such as the number of procedures that the chosen notary’s office has and the complexity of the property situation of the spouses, but in general, the process takes between 2 and 4 weeks from the beginning of the process at the notary’s office until the registration of the deed in the civil registry.

Since it is not necessary to register the marital contracts that take place in a state database, there are no exact statistics on this procedure.

However, marriage contracts are an option increasingly used by couples before getting married.

Marital contracts are recommended for couples who wish to protect their personal assets and/or establish clear agreements on the administration and distribution of assets in the marriage.

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