Stable Union - Part II: General elements and controversial aspects

After addressing the requirements and legal requirements for the constitution of a stable union, we will address some aspects that still involve this type of relationship. The first point to be addressed is the issue of the regime of property, which legally will be that of partial communion (art. 1640), except for the hypothesis in which one of the cohabitants is over 70 years of age, in which the law imposes that the regime will be that of total separation (art. 1641, II, both of the Civil Code). It should be noted that, in order to adopt a differentiated property regime, it is necessary to formalize the stable union by public deed – which is highly relevant in these cases, as it will indicate the start date of the union, preventing a possible judicial discussion in the future. It is also important to emphasize that both heterosexual and homosexual couples have both the right to have their stable union recognized and the possibility of converting it into civil marriage (Resolution No. 175 of 2013 of the National Council of Justice). On the other hand, two aspects are still the subject of great controversy, they are: the dating contract and polyaffective unions. The dating contract is an instrument made by the couple so that both expressly declare that the relationship is just a relationship, without any intention of starting a family. It aims to demonstrate that the relationship is not a stable union, but being a fairly recent topic, there is some controversy about the validity and effectiveness of the document. Even more controversial is the issue of polyaffective unions – stable unions with more than two people – which, after drawing up stable unions in two notary offices in São Paulo, was expressly prohibited by the National Council of Justice. It should also be noted that the CNJ understood that such drawings have no legal value, since they were not based on the concept of stable union brought by the Constitution. Finally, in our next article, we will address the issue of the succession regime in a stable union. CBR Legal Advice