The main rule is that the parties in a marriage or cohabitation partnership own their own property and are responsible for their own debts. For property that is to be excluded from the property settlement, it is important to decide whether the parties own the property together and thus need to split it.

Hidden joint ownership means that even though one party has bought the property, the parties could be co-owners. This is the case if the property has been purchased for joint use, the other party has contributed to the ownership and the party that purchased the property has understood this.