Guide
Dividing property when one party lives abroad
What belongs to the marital estate, whether there is a deadline, who gets back what they put in, and when a notary is enough instead of a court.
In this guide
Under Polish law, divorce and the division of property are two separate matters. A divorce judgment ends the marriage, but it does not by itself divide the apartment, the savings, or the plot of land that came from the in-laws. A great many families discover the difference years later - when it turns out that an apartment in Poland still belongs to two people who have not spoken in a decade, one of whom lives in the United States.
Key points
- A divorce does not divide property. That is a separate proceeding and it has to be dealt with deliberately.
- The marital estate normally covers what was acquired during the marriage - but not inheritances or gifts made to one spouse.
- Asking for the estate to be divided is not itself subject to a deadline, though individual settlement claims can be.
- If both sides agree, an agreement is enough - in notarial form where real estate is involved.
- The same logic applies to siblings who inherited a house: that is co-ownership, and it can be brought to an end.
What belongs to the marital estate?
Marriage creates a statutory community of property unless the spouses signed a marital property agreement. The marital estate covers, as a rule, what was acquired during the marriage - a jointly purchased apartment, savings, earnings from work, income from assets.
What stays outside it is what each spouse brought in and - most importantly for our clients - assets acquired by inheritance, bequest, or gift, unless the deceased or the donor provided otherwise. A house inherited from parents by one spouse during the marriage normally does not enter the marital estate and is not subject to division.
A regime that arises automatically on marriage. It covers assets acquired during the marriage by both spouses or by either of them. It ends on divorce, on the establishment of separate estates, or on the death of a spouse - and only then can the estate be divided.
This distinction is the biggest source of misunderstanding in diaspora families, because intuition says that "we were married, so everything is half and half." Polish law does not work that way, and explaining it at the outset often changes the whole picture of a case.
Is there a deadline for dividing property?
Asking for the marital estate to be divided after the community has ended is not itself subject to a time limit - a case from twenty years ago can be brought, and we do it regularly. That does not make waiting safe, for three reasons.
First, some settlement claims - over contributions, expenditure, or one former spouse's use of an asset - may carry their own time limits; we check that individually. Second, the evidence disappears: renovation invoices from fifteen years ago, payment confirmations, witnesses. Third, the situation grows more complicated - one party dies and their heirs join the case, or the apartment is sold, mortgaged, or occupied by a new family.
Who recovers what they paid in from their own funds?
Dividing an estate is not only about splitting assets; it is also about settling the flows between the estates, and that works in both directions. Where one spouse put money from their own separate estate - from an inheritance, say, or from savings predating the marriage - into the joint estate, they can claim that outlay back on division. Outlays made from the joint estate on one spouse's separate property are settled the same way. Not everything is recoverable: the rules exclude outlays necessary for assets that produce income, and spending consumed on the needs of the family, unless it increased the value of the estate at the moment the community ended.
Money earned in the United States is not separate property for that reason. Where the matter is governed by Polish law, wages once received belong to the joint estate, including wages earned abroad and paid into one spouse's own account. What stays separate is savings from before the community arose and earnings from after separate estates were established; simply living apart, without ending the community, changes nothing here. So money wired from the U.S. toward a house in Poland is usually an outlay from the joint estate on the separate property of whichever spouse owns the house - not the other way round, as intuition suggests.
Which law governs the spouses' property relations is a separate question. It is decided by a shared nationality, by where the spouses live, or by a choice of law the spouses made, not by the fact of living in the United States. We settle that first, because everything else follows from it.
From there, everything turns on evidence. Transfer confirmations, contracts, invoices for materials, correspondence in which the parties discussed where the money came from - that is what decides the outcome. The fact that "everybody knew" is not enough in court.
A client in New Jersey spent twelve years sending money to build a house in southeastern Poland, on a plot that belonged to her husband's separate estate. After the divorce it emerged that the house followed the plot. The case was therefore not about dividing real estate but about settling outlays on a property that belonged to her husband's separate estate - and what proved decisive were twelve years of transfer confirmations from her American bank.
An agreement before a notary, or a court case?
If the former spouses agree on what the estate contains, what it is worth, and how it should be split, an agreement is enough. Where real estate is involved, it has to take the form of a notarial deed. This route is markedly faster and cheaper, and for a party living abroad a power of attorney suffices.
Where there is no agreement, the court decides. The proceeding covers identifying the assets, valuing them (usually on an expert's opinion), settling contributions, and choosing how to divide: physically splitting an asset, awarding it to one party against an equalizing payment, or ordering a sale and dividing the proceeds. This route takes longer and costs more, but it does not need the other side's consent - which is often the only way forward once contact has broken down.
How does division work when the co-owners are siblings?
The logic is the same, though the legal basis differs. Siblings who inherited their parents' house are co-owners in fractional shares. Each holds a share in the whole property rather than "their own floor," so selling the whole thing requires everyone to agree. The proceeding that ends this is the termination of co-ownership, and it works the same way: by agreement before a notary, or through a court.
In practice these matters often combine with the division of an estate, especially where the inheritance itself has never been resolved. The order is then fixed: first establish who inherits, then divide. Courts can deal with both questions in a single proceeding, which shortens the whole path.
What can we handle without you traveling?
A division by agreement is carried out by the lawyer acting for you: negotiating the terms, settling the wording, appearing before the notary, and filing to update the land register. In court proceedings the same lawyer runs the case, and your attendance at hearings is usually unnecessary - although a court may decide it wants to hear you in person.
Your part comes down to two things. First, documents: the marriage certificate, the divorce judgment, an extract from the land register, and above all everything that evidences the movement of money - transfer confirmations, contracts, invoices. Second, a power of attorney, signed before a notary in the United States or at a Polish consulate. We settle its wording, and whether it needs an apostille, before you sign.
This article is general information about how the process works in Poland. It is not legal advice for your particular matter - the right approach depends on your documents and circumstances, so it is worth discussing your situation individually before you decide anything.
