SINGAPORE DIVORCE LAW
(Supplied by the Family Court of Singapore)
QUESTION:What are the reasons ("grounds") on which
I can get a divorce?
The court will only grant you a divorce if it is satisfied that your
marriage has "irretrievably broken down". In order to prove that your
marriage has "irretrievably broken down", you must be able to show the
existence of at least one of the following facts ("grounds"):
(a) That your spouse has committed adultery (i.e. had consensual sexual
relations with a person other than yourself), and that you find it
intolerable to live with him/her; and/or
(b) That your spouse has behaved in such a way that you cannot
reasonably be expected to live with him/her (for example, your spouse
has committed family violence against you); and/or
(c) That your spouse has deserted you for a continuous period of at
least 2 years just before you start your divorce proceedings; and/or
(d) That you and your spouse have lived apart for a continuous period of
at least 3 years just before you start divorce proceedings, and your
spouse agrees to the divorce; and/or
(e) That you and your spouse have lived apart for a continuous period of
at least 4 years just before you start divorce proceedings. In this
case, your spouse does not need to agree to the divorce.
Note that for a) above, if you continue to live with your spouse for
more than 6 months after you discover the adultery, you cannot rely on
adultery to petition for a divorce.
For c) above, desertion means leaving you without your agreement and
without any reasonable cause. In exceptional cases, where your spouse
has without reasonable cause driven you out of the home and continues to
exclude you from the house for a period of two years, that can also
constitute desertion by your spouse.
For d) and e) above, "living apart" requires the intention of staying
apart from each other with the view of ending the marriage, as well as
the physical act of staying apart. However, you may still be considered
as staying apart even if you and your spouse are staying at the same
address, if you and your spouse have led completely separate lives and
have separate households (i.e. not staying in the same bedroom, not
having sexual relations, not doing any household chores such as cooking,
washing, cleaning, ironing, etc. together, or for each other; not having
meals together as a family; not going out together as a family, etc.)
for the required length of time, for the purposes of obtaining a divorce
based on three or four years' separation.
QUESTION:My spouse and I got married overseas/My
spouse and I have not lived in Singapore for many years--can we still
get a divorce in the Singapore courts?
You can get a divorce in the Singapore courts even if
you got married overseas, or if you do not live in Singapore, so long
as:
(a) Either you or your spouse has lived in Singapore for a period of 3
years just before your divorce proceedings start; or
(b) Either you or your spouse is "domiciled" in Singapore at the start
of your divorce proceedings, i.e. that Singapore is your permanent home.
A Singapore citizen and a Singapore permanent resident is assumed to be
"domiciled" in Singapore, unless the contrary is proved.
But even if you can prove one or both of the above factors, your spouse
may argue that it would be more appropriate for the divorce proceedings
to be dealt with in another country, for various reasons, for example,
because you are both citizens of that country, and are intending to
return there to live permanently in a short while. |
Law of domicile in Singapore
Jeremy D. Morley
The Singapore High Court has
enforced a prenuptial agreement entered into in the Netherlands
between a Swedish wife and a Dutch husband. TQ v. TR, [2007] SGHC
106; decision date July 11, 2007.
The couple had lived
together in England, had moved for a short time to the Netherlands,
where they had married and executed the prenuptial agreement under
Dutch law before a notary who had acted for both of them. They had
then returned to live in England before moving to Singapore with
their three children and had then remained in Singapore. The
prenuptial agreement provided that there was to be no community of
assets and that each spouse would keep his or her own assets.
The Court found that the
wife was not domiciled in the Netherlands, so that Dutch law would
not govern the division of matrimonial property. Accordingly it
looked to Singapore law and specifically to the “Women’s Charter.”
Section 112 of Singapore's Women’s Charter empowers the courts to
order such division of matrimonial assets as they deem “just and
equitable” and requires the courts to consider a host of specified
factors in making that decision. Such factors include “any agreement
between the parties with respect to the ownership and division of
the matrimonial assets made in contemplation of divorce.”
The court awarded
“maintenance” (i.e. alimony or spousal support) in the form of a
lump sum in the full amount that the wife requested, as well as
child support. It then upheld the prenuptial agreement in light of
those apparently generous awards.
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