TransNational (Mixed) Marriages & Property Rights

        

There are several laws with overlapping articles concerning transnational marriages and property ownership including:

• the Basic Agrarian Law (UU 5/1960 or "UUPA" - Undang-Undang Pokok Agraria) 
• Article 33 Section 3 of the Indonesian Constitution (Undang-Undang Dasar 1945/UUD 1945)
• the 1974 Marriage Law
• Law No. 7/1984 on the ratification of Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw)
• the Citizenship Law
• the 1996 Government Regulation on property rights. 

The 1996 Government Regulation on foreign ownership stipulates that only Indonesian citizens can own property. However, that changes if an Indonesian marries an expatriate.

An Indonesian (man or woman) in a transnational marriage may lose their right to possess land because according to the Marriage Law and Law No. 7/1984 on Cedaw ratification every possession that is purchased by a mixed couple after they are married is considered a collective possession. The couple would lose the right to own land because one of the parties was an expatriate. 
 

Under the Marriage Law No. 1/1974, both the wife and husband, irrespective of their nationality, have equal rights to family assets. But this is contradictory to the Land Law No. 5/1960, which states that foreigners cannot own land in Indonesia.

As a result, an Indonesian spouse (husband or wife) who married a foreigner loses their  rights as a citizen to buy land and borrow money from a bank for marrying a foreigner. It is discriminatory and contradictory. 

To circumvent or get around this, if the couple managed to have a prenuptial agreement in place before they got married, then the house that had been bought in the name of the Indonesian wife or husband's name would not be encumbered later in a subsequent sales transaction, inheritance, etc because the house will be considered the Indonesian wife or husband's sole possession and not that of the foreign husband or wife in a joint tenancy, tenants in common or tenants by the entirety form of property ownership.

We'll definitely have to watch for legislation affecting all this, as this issue of transnational or mixed marriages in Indonesia with respect to children, property rights, inheritances, etc is a big issue...