Brief Description of the Case

       Ms Chen and Mr Liu agreed to divorce in 2019, and made a clear agreement on the issue of child support and property division. 2020, Ms Chen claimed that she was unable to find a suitable job after the divorce due to her care for the family and children, and her support for Mr Liu's work, which resulted in a huge loss, and sued on the basis of the dispute of liability for damages after the divorce, and claimed that Mr Liu should pay a one-time payment of 500,000 RMB for compensation for household chores to her.

      The Haidian Court held that the request for financial compensation must be made at the time of divorce, Ms Chen claimed compensation only after the dissolution of the marriage between the two parties, which was inconsistent with the constitutive elements stipulated in the law, and therefore did not support her claim.

Court Hearing

      Ms Chen claimed that she and Mr Liu got married in 2000 and gave birth to a daughter, Liu Chenchen, after the marriage.In May 2019, the two parties agreed to divorce at the Civil Affairs Bureau and signed the Divorce Agreement, which made a clear agreement on child support and division of the couple's common property.In December 2020, Ms Chen filed a lawsuit to the court, requesting Mr Liu to compensate for the losses Ms Chen incurred as a result of taking care of the family and the children, and supporting Mr Liu to go out on assignment, and to abandonment of her own work resulted in losses, starting from May 2019, the month following the divorce, to pay 8,000 yuan per month. During the course of the litigation, Ms Chen changed her claim to a one-off payment of RMB 500,000 by Mr Liu to compensate her for her household chores.

      Ms Chen argued that she graduated from a prestigious university and entered a foreign company after graduation with outstanding work performance. After they got married, because Mr Liu was sent out by the company, Ms Chen also travelled frequently, no one to take care of the children, so they negotiated with Ms Chen to resign and focus on taking care of the children at home. Ms Chen believed that, after resigning in 2005, with her own education and ability to work, even if the interval of half a year or a year can find a job again, but now she has been out of work for more than ten years and nearly 50 years old, the loss of the opportunity cost of the work and the cost of time, and take care of the child caused by the nature of the work of the constraints that can not be found in a suitable job. When he left his job, his annual income has reached nearly 300,000 yuan, but now pay the minimum social security, after retirement can only get the minimum living security, the family's contribution to their own huge losses, so the ex-husband to pay the corresponding compensation.

       Mr Liu argued that the two sides have agreed to divorce, and in the division of the joint property of the couple has taken into account Ms. Chen's contribution to the factor and more distribution of joint property to the couple.

       During the trial, Mr Liu acknowledged the facts of Ms Chen's work experience, work ability and contribution to the family, and the court confirmed that the relevant facts were not disputed.

Judge's Statement

       Full-time women usually undertake a great deal of domestic work in the marital home, for example, one of them quits her job to become a full-time housewife or househusband in order to take care of young children and the family; and one of them assumes the main responsibility for taking care of both parents or one of the parents, including care in daily life, accompanying them to medical appointments, and nursing care, and so on. Although these household chores do not generate direct financial income, they play an important role in the normal functioning of the family.

      Article 108 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China provides that a spouse who has borne a greater share of the obligations of raising children, caring for the elderly, assisting the other spouse in his or her work, etc., has the right to request compensation from the other spouse in the event of a divorce, and that the other spouse shall provide compensation. The specific method shall be agreed upon by both parties; if the agreement fails, it shall be decided by the People's Court.

       1、Method of claim

       Spouses can negotiate the amount and manner of housework compensation in the divorce, if they can reach an agreement, can be clear in the written divorce agreement in the price of compensation for the specific content; if the two sides can not reach a consensus, can be put forward in the divorce proceedings in the request for housework compensation, articulate the facts and reasons for claiming compensation for household chores, and submit the relevant evidence, by the court in accordance with the circumstances of the specific case to make a judgement.

        It is important to note that compensation for household chores presupposes that the party with the greater burden of obligation files a request for compensation. The request for compensation for household chores shall be made at the time of divorce, whether by agreement or litigation, if the claim for compensation for household chores, the application for compensation shall be made in the process of divorce; if the other party is not requested to make compensation at the time of divorce, it is regarded as a waiver of the request for compensation, and the court shall not accept the request for financial compensation after the divorce is agreed upon or adjudicated.

        2. Evidence collection

       Whether by agreement or in litigation, the amount of compensation for housework is usually determined by taking into account the intensity and duration of the housework, the impact on one's own development, the benefits to the other party, the duration of the marriage, the local economic level and other factors. When collecting relevant evidence, the party claiming compensation for housework can try to ask family members living together (e.g. children, parents, etc.), neighbours, and staff of grassroots organisations such as neighbourhood committees or village committees to testify as witnesses, and also keep documentary materials such as invoices for purchases of daily necessities, medical bills, and records of children's education, as well as photographs, videos and other audio-visual materials of daily family life as evidence. Audio-visual materials can also be used as evidence.

This article is reprinted from the WeChat public number ‘Beijing Haidian Court’, with thanks!