Divorce in Peru: mutual consent vs. fault-based

Two very different paths

Peru has two ways to end a marriage, and choosing the wrong one can cost months or years. Mutual-consent separation with a later divorce (Ley 29227) is an administrative process at a municipality or notary’s office, designed for couples who agree. Fault-based divorce is a court process, for when there’s no agreement and one spouse has to prove a specific ground.

The court-free route: mutual-consent separation

Article 2 of Ley 29227 sets a time requirement: two years of marriage since the wedding. Once that’s met, Article 4 adds two more conditions:

• No unresolved minor children or incapacitated adult children — or, if there are, a final court judgment or a conciliation record on parental authority, child support (alimentos), custody, and visitation.
• No undivided marital property — or, if there is, a registered public deed substituting or liquidating the marital property regime.

Once the requirements are met, the process is fast: Article 6 requires the mayor or notary to call a single hearing within fifteen days. If both spouses confirm their decision at that hearing, the mutual-consent separation is declared by municipal resolution or notarial deed.

The waiting period nobody can skip

Once the mutual-consent separation is declared, divorce isn’t immediate. Article 7 of Ley 29227 requires two months to pass from that resolution before either spouse can request dissolution of the marriage — a request that must be resolved within no more than fifteen days. Article 354 of the Civil Code, as amended by Ley 29227 itself, extends this same two-month rule to a court judgment of legal separation based on de facto separation.

When there’s no agreement: fault-based divorce

If one spouse doesn’t agree, the only option is to sue based on one of the 13 grounds listed in Article 333 of the Civil Code: adultery, physical or psychological violence, an attempt on the spouse’s life, serious insult, unjustified abandonment of the home for more than two years, dishonorable conduct, habitual drug use, a serious sexually transmitted disease, homosexuality arising after the marriage, a criminal conviction for an intentional crime carrying more than two years, the impossibility of living together, de facto separation, and mutual-consent separation. Article 349 allows a divorce to be filed directly on the same grounds numbered 1 through 12.

One ground deserves special attention because of how common it is: de facto separation. Article 333(12) requires an uninterrupted period of two years, but that period rises to four years if the spouses have minor children. This process is judicial, longer than the municipal route, and doesn’t require the other spouse’s agreement.

What happens to spousal support

Divorce doesn’t always cut off every financial obligation between former spouses. Article 350 of the Civil Code sets the general rule — “divorce ends the support obligation between husband and wife” — but adds an important exception: if the divorce was declared due to one spouse’s fault and the other lacks sufficient property or income and can’t work or otherwise support themselves, the judge can set support of up to one-third of the at-fault spouse’s income.

What to do

If you and your spouse agree, first check whether you meet the two requirements in Article 4 — children and property — because those determine whether you can use the municipal or notarial route instead of going to court. If parental authority, child support, custody or visitation for your children is not yet settled, resolve that first with a final judgment or a conciliation record: it’s a requirement, not an optional step. If there’s no agreement with your spouse, identify which of the 13 grounds in Article 333 applies to your situation before filing — de facto separation is the most common, but its required period changes if there are minor children involved. And if the divorce ends up being due to the other spouse’s fault and you’re left at an economic disadvantage, don’t assume you’re entitled to nothing: consider requesting the support Article 350 allows.

Calculate it

If you already have the value of the social property, use the marital property split calculator to see how much each spouse gets in a 50/50 sociedad de gananciales split.

What happens to shared property when you divorce?

Divorce also means liquidating the marital property regime, if you were under community property. See how assets and debts are split in marital property regimes in Peru.