key to the study guide - Name

Rebuttable presumption
Circumstances
which may rebut
presumption
Meaning of universal
community of
property
What does joint estate
consist of?
94
In this regard, there is a rebuttable presumption in our law that when two
persons are married, they are married in community of property. You will,
however, note in your prescribed textbook that this presumption can be
rebutted by proving the existence of certain circumstances. These
circumstances are listed and discussed in your textbook under the heading
``6.3 The cases where community of property does not arise'' (pars (1)
to (4) pp 70±71). You must be able to mention these circumstances.
2 THE NATURE OF UNIVERSAL COMMUNITY OF PROPERTY
Now that you know when universal community of property arises we can
look at the meaning of universal community of property. The nature of
universal community of property is discussed on page 71 of your
prescribed textbook.
ACTIVITY
Read the paragraph which deals with the nature of universal community of
property, on page 71 of your prescribed textbook, and then explain very
briefly (in more or less four sentences) what it means when we say that
there is universal community of property in a marriage.
FEEDBACK
When you study this section you will see that universal community of
property entails that the husband and wife become tied co-owners in
undivided and indivisible half-shares of all the assets and liabilities they
have at the time of their marriage, as well as of all the assets and liabilities
they acquire during the marriage. When they marry, the separate estates of
the husband and the wife are automatically merged into one joint estate.
Upon dissolution of the marriage, all liabilities are settled from the joint
estate and the balance of the joint estate is then distributed equally
between the spouses. This view of the nature of universal community of
property was confirmed by the appellate division (now the supreme court
of appeal) in Estate Sayle v Commissioner for Inland Revenue and De Wet v
Jurgens.
3 THE CONTENT OF UNIVERSAL COMMUNITY OF PROPERTY
Under this heading we look at the joint estate and more specifically at the
content thereof. The joint estate consists of joint assets and joint liabilities.