Property, Custody, and Support in a Greek Divorce

Beyond ending the marriage itself, most divorces in Greece involve two further questions: how property is divided, and how responsibility for any children is shared afterward. Both are governed by specific rules under Greek family law. This is a general overview, not legal advice -- specific outcomes depend on individual circumstances and should be discussed with a lawyer.

Property: separation of assets is the default. Unless a couple has signed a prenuptial or marital agreement establishing otherwise, Greek law's default matrimonial property regime is separation of property: each spouse keeps whatever they owned before the marriage, and whatever they acquire individually during it, as their own. Assets received as a gift or inheritance during the marriage are also treated as separate property.

The claim for a share of the other spouse's acquisitions. Separation of property does not mean a spouse who contributed to the marriage -- financially or otherwise, including through unpaid domestic or child-rearing work -- necessarily leaves with nothing. Greek law gives a spouse the right to claim a share of the increase in the other spouse's property that occurred during the marriage, in proportion to the contribution they made toward that increase. This claim has to be pursued specifically; it is not an automatic 50/50 split.

Community property by agreement. Spouses can instead choose, by prenuptial or marital agreement, to adopt a community-of-property regime, under which certain property acquired during the marriage is jointly owned and divided between them.

Custody: a shift toward joint parental responsibility. Historically, Greek courts commonly awarded sole custody to one parent after a divorce. Law 4800/2021 changed the legal starting point: it introduced a presumption that joint and equal exercise of parental responsibility by both parents, after divorce or separation, is in the child's best interest, replacing the older sole-custody default. Parental responsibility under Greek law covers more than day-to-day custody -- it also includes managing the child's property and representing the child legally.

Contact time for the non-residential parent. Where the child's residence is primarily with one parent, the law sets a rebuttable presumption that the other parent is entitled to contact amounting to roughly a third of the child's total time, adjustable based on the child's best interests and the specifics of the family's situation.

Child and spousal support. Support obligations, both child support and, in some cases, spousal maintenance, are assessed against the needs of the person receiving support and the financial capacity of the person paying it, rather than a fixed formula; they can be agreed between the spouses as part of a consensual divorce or set by a court in a contested case.

As with property division, none of this is a substitute for individual legal advice: how these rules apply depends heavily on the specifics of a marriage, the ages and needs of any children, and each spouse's financial situation.