I want to buy a garage for my son. He’s married. How to make an entry in the Land Register so that the garage is deemed his own private property. I don’t want to execute this transaction in two stages, i.e. to register myself as the owner and then make the property over to my son by means of the gift. Is there a way to make this transaction in one go? I don’t want to ask the wife of my son to sign any documents.

According to Section 91 of Civil Law of the Republic of Latvia, the separate property of each spouse is property, which was acquired gratis during the marriage by one of the spouses, as well as the property that replaces such property. 

The gift of funds may be executed in your case. The funds will be deemed as a gift given to your son without remuneration. With this in mind, your son will be able to buy the garage using the gifted funds and register it in the Land Register as his separate property. In this case his wife won’t have the right to claim interest in this property. 

You may, of course, at first register yourself as the owner of the property and only after that give it as a gift to your son. However, in this case the transaction will have to be made in two stages, which will incur additional expenses for services of the notary and ownership rights registration. 

We also would like to inform that in case of a dispute it will be your son who will have to prove that the property is his own separate property. Therefore, the acquiring of the property during marriage shall be carried out carefully with due respect to the provisions of gift contract, property purchase contract and corroboration request for registration of the ownership rights in the Land Register, as the entry in the Land Register shall state that the property is a separate property of your son.