basic case

     Li and Yang used to be husband and wife, and their marriage experience was quite turbulent. In 2013, the two divorced due to trivial life matters, and signed a divorce agreement. The agreement clearly stipulated that a house in Xishan District would be owned by the woman, Li.

    However, the fate did not end there. In 2016, Li and Yang remarried. After the remarriage, Li purchased the storage room and parking space in the community where the above house is located. He thought his life would be stable, but in July last year, the two encountered another marital crisis, and Li reluctantly sued the court for divorce.

    During the litigation, the focus of the conflict was on the storage room and parking space purchased after the remarriage. Yang asked for the division of these properties, and since the house was registered in Li's name, he argued for the corresponding merger. But Li believes that as early as the first divorce, the two parties had agreed that the house would belong to her, and the storage room and parking space, as accessories of the house, were naturally hers.

court hearing

     The court held after trial that, first of all, from the actual situation, the storage room and the parking space have separate purchase contracts, which can be used independently or transferred separately, and are not appendages of the house. Secondly, the purchase of the storage room and the parking space right occurred during the marriage relationship between Li and Yang. According to Article 1062 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the property rights and interests acquired during this period belong to the common property of the husband and wife. Therefore, Yang has the right to claim the division of these properties.

     From the perspective of giving full play to the utility of things, the court held that the right to use the storage room and parking space was a more appropriate way to deal with Li. At the same time, Li should pay the corresponding merger money to Yang according to the purchase price. After considering all factors, the court finally ruled that the right to use the storage room and parking space of the house was enjoyed by Li, and Li needed to pay the merger money to Yang 40,000 yuan.

Judge's statement

    Husband and wife are close partners who work together to withstand the wind and rain, and they are also a community of interests. But sometimes they have no choice but to go their separate ways. Once they reach this point, how to legally and reasonably divide the common property becomes the top priority.

    When divorcing and dividing the real estate in the common property, if there is no special agreement, the understanding of the real estate in the usual sense is subject to the information such as the apartment type and area stated on the house ownership certificate. And the additional property purchased after buying a house, such as the storage room purchased in marriage, the parking space, etc., is generally obtained in the form of a separate sales contract and a use right contract. Therefore, they are relatively independent and do not naturally become accessories of the real estate. In real life, they can be used and transferred separately within a certain range, usually within the same community.

    Therefore, when dealing with the division of divorce property, it is not possible to directly determine the matching parking spaces and storage rooms by the ownership of the house, but should be properly disposed of under the condition of fully considering the utility of the property.

     In real life, the matching use between things is ubiquitous. Some things are physically separable and have their own independent value, such as houses and parking spaces, houses and stone lions at the door; some things must be attached to another thing to play a value function, such as houses and elevators installed in houses; some things have the function of matching use, but there is no need to dispose of them together, such as clothes and hangers. Therefore, in judicial practice, in addition to analyzing the relevant property from the aspect of use function, it is more important to respect the transaction habits and the actual situation of social life, so as to reduce the occurrence of disputes in transactions.