LISTEN| How to legally re-marry your former spouse after divorce

Rekindling with your ex-spouse may feel like restoring a marriage, but legally, reconciliation does not undo a divorce decree.

Family lawyer Nthabiseng Dubazana says couples who have legally divorced and later decide to reunite must go through the normal marriage process if they want their relationship to be recognised as a marriage.

This means registering the marriage through the appropriate legal process and deciding on a marital regime, including whether to marry in or out of community of property and whether the accrual system will apply.

Dubazana warns that couples should not assume that resuming their relationship automatically restores their previous marriage .

“If a couple had divorced and a decree of divorce had been issued but they later reconciled, they would have to go through the normal process of remarriage,” she said.

She also cautioned couples against attempting to use reconciliation to circumvent financial obligations or gain access to benefits.

“You need to ensure that it is very clear that the divorce was not as a direct result of a fraudulent act, i.e., you wanted to access pension funds to pay debt, but you’re still living together,” she said.

Dubazana said there is also an important distinction between remarrying an ex-spouse and simply resuming a relationship with a former partner.

A remarriage creates a new legal marriage and requires the couple to determine how their estates will be treated.

“If you’re getting married in community of property ... if you’re marrying out of community of property, you need to either choose the option of accrual or not have the option of accrual,” she said.

“If you’re getting back together with a partner, be very careful of vat en sit because there is legal ground as you have been relying on each other for maintenance in one form or another, so they may have a claim against you.”

Dubazana said where a settlement agreement existed, its terms would have applied to the previous marriage, but a subsequent marriage effectively starts a new legal chapter.

“Those things now fall to the wayside; you’re starting afresh,” she said.