Law of 13/08/2011, reforming the procedure for legal liquidation/distribution

This law was published in the Moniteur Belge on 14/09/2011 and came into force on 01/04/2012.

The procedure for legal liquidation/distribution applies when there is a divorce (community of property or joint possession), a separation or an inheritance between two or more persons.

The aim of the reform is to simplify the procedure and to build on it, or even to impose time scales on it so that it is not bogged down and so that the liquidation operations are no longer blocked for months, or even years as was the case sometimes, weakening the financial situation of some parties.

The main points of this reform are:

• the establishment of a supplementary legal schedule governing the conduct of the liquidation operations and binding the parties and the designated notary to obey the time scales thus imposed, unless otherwise agreed by the parties according to a dispensatory contractual schedule.
• the designation of a single notary to handle the liquidation operations, unless otherwise agreed, with grounds, by the parties on the choice of two notaries, which agreement is subject to assessment by the competent judge;
• the removal of a notary responsible for representing absent and recalcitrant parties;
• the possibility of enacting, at any stage of the procedure, the agreements reached between the parties and which bind them definitively;
• the possibility of excluding certain assets (particularly those located abroad) from the operations if these are blocking the liquidation procedure;
• the automatic establishment of an inventory, unless the parties agree to waive this;
• the possibility for the liquidating notary, subject to agreement by the parties, to assign additional tasks to an expert, to change or update the task of an expert who has already been appointed, without having to return before a court;
• the modification of the rules relating to appeal, in the event of an appeal of the judgement regarding the appointment of the notary;
• the setting up of a simplified procedure regarding the replacement of the liquidating notary