A testament in Indonesia is the right instrument to reflect your last will about your assets, and other things that you want your successor to do for you. This is a very serious business as you need to make sure the person you trust as your administrator to execute those wishes after you're gone. 

In order to valid legally, you need to make sure your last will is being written in a recognized testament. You should know that according to the Indonesian laws on inheritance, anything you own while you are alive belongs to your heir, as long as you have not made any withstanding legal stipulation. Some terms and conditions are applicable in order to create the last will that works for you, not against you. 

One Testament for One Person

You and your spouse may have the same thing in mind. You love each other, spend your lives together, and think that it's now to pass everything to your loved ones. Both of you are thinking to write a last will to make sure they are getting everything after you passed-away.

It's a good idea! But you've got do it on a separate testament. Just because you're a husband and wife, you can't do it on the same document. You have to do it on a different deed. It's a last will, not a prenup.

Our Civil Code imposed the stipulation in Article 930: "A last will cannot be made by two or more individuals in one deed, whether it is in favor of a third party, mutual or reciprocal arrangement."

Types of Last Will

Your last will can be made by holographic. It means you can write it with your hand. It is a handwritten and testator-signed document. It is recognized in Indonesia, but it must be drawn-up with a deed of safekeeping. As the testator you must sign it at the bottom of your last will. It must also be signed in front of the two witnesses.  

With the deed of safekeeping, such holographic last will have the same validity as a last will made by official deed, without having regard to the noted date on the last will. At all times, you may reclaim your holographic testament. It is then shall be regarded as revocation of your last will.Even though Indonesian laws on inheritance recognized this type of testament, nevertheless, I would suggest you to make time to draw-up a formally-drafted deed.

Your last will can also be made by official deed. It shall be executed in the presence of two witnesses. The deed must be signed by you as the testator, and his/her witnesses. If you're intend to make a private or confidential statement, you are required to put your signature beside each of your stipulations, either written by yourself, or those that were written by somebody else.

Criteria of the Witnesses

In order to write your last will, you need to have two witnesses present. This is mandatory requirement as imposed by all inheritance laws in Indonesia. The primary criteria to serve as witness that they must present at the time that last wills are made, shall be of age, and shall be resident in Indonesia. 

Another criterias for serving as witness that you must meet capacities set-out by the law. No heirs, legatees, nor their blood relatives or relatives by marriage up to and including the fourth degree, nor their children or grandchildren, nor blood relatives in the same degree,  shall be permitted to be witnesses of a last will, made in the form of an official deed.

Last Will During Pandemic

Last will creating during pandemic where all relations have been prohibited due to plagues or other contagious diseases, can make their last will in the present of two witnesses. You as the testator must sign it in front of the witnesses.

In the event the testator or one of the witnesses declares that he is unable to write or has been prevented from signing, then such declaration including the cause of the impediment shall be expressly referred to in the deed. All the circumstances, which have resulted in the last will being made shall be stated in the deed.

The last wills shall be invalid, if the testator dies six months after the circumstances which resulted in the wills being drawn up in such a format no longer exist.  The last will shall be invalid, in the event that the testator dies six months after the date of the deed.

The formalities of the last will must be carefully observed in order to meet the stipulation according to the inheritance law. If you fail to do so, will render them invalid. 

Testamentary Gift

In Indonesia, we recognized this as "Hibah Wasiat." It is a special testament, under which the testator bestows onto one or more persons his properties of a certain kind, for example, all of his properties, movable or immovable, or the usufruct rights over the entire or part of his estate.

Each recipient of the testamentary gift must claim the transfer of the gifted properties against the successor or the testament recipient, who must transfer such properties. All taxes, under whatever name, payable to the state for each gift, is borne by the recipient unless otherwise stated in the testament.

Revocation and Expiration 

A last will cannot, either in its entirety or partly, be revoked in any manner other than by a subsequent last will, in which the testator declares the full or partial revocation of his earlier last will.

The revocation, either express, or implied, in a subsequent last will, shall be fully enforceable, notwithstanding that the subsequent deed is rendered invalid due to the incompetence of the nominated heir or legatee, or by their refusal to accept the inheritance.

Executor and Administrator

A testator, may, by last will, appoint one or more executors of his last will. He may also nominate several individuals, to succeed one another in the event of unavailability. They have very important jobs to make the last will properly implemented. 

The executors of a last will is to seal the inheritance. In the event that the heirs are minors under conservatorship, who, at the death of the testator have not been provided with guardians or conservators, or in the event that such heirs are not represented or are not present in person.

They prepare an estate description of the properties in the inheritance, in the presence of the heirs following the proper summons of those who reside within Indonesia. They ensure that the last will of the deceased shall be implemented. In the event of dispute, they can appear in court to maintain the validity of the last will.

The executors of last wills, including the administrator, may be discharged for the same reasons applicable to discharge of guardians. 

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My name is Asep Wijaya. Thank you for visiting my blog and reading my posts!

Origin of a child in Indonesia is a procedure to legalize your offspring and you through a strict legal mechanism in order to recognize the child legally. This is the procedures that protected by our 1945 Constitution as imposed on Article 28B (2): "Every child has the right of survival, growth, and development, participating and entitled to protection from violence and discrimination as well as civil rights and freedoms."

The implementation of the constitutional protection for the child is with the Child Protection Law of 2014 stipulates that the child has the right to know its parents. If you were married in a legal and recognized way, the child will not be having difficulties to access its rights under the laws. Nevertheless, if you were not legally married, the child will have problems in recognizing its rights and their access will be denied.

Before we go further in getting to review the offspring origin within Indonesia's legal system, you need to identify the type of child status according to our prevailing laws and regulation, as follows:

Legitimate Child

Article 42 of 1974 Marriage Law stipulates that a legitimate child is a child born within or as a result of a legitimate marriage. A legitimate child can also be born of the results of both spouses actions outside of his wife's womb.

The latter is pretty advanced ruling as this may be interpreted to include babies born using an artificial uterus or womb or even through a surrogate mother. Although, the last one is not considered legal yet according to the health regulation in Indonesia.

I am here not to discuss methods of how babies are born. That's not really my department. I am putting those mechanism just to bring those to your attention that such things exist and what the laws think about it.

Let's carry on!

Child Born Out of Legal Marriage

According to the decision from the Constitutional Court number 46/PUU-VIII/2010 dated 17 February 2012 on the amendment of 1974 Marriage Law especially Article 43 (1) imposed that a child born out of wedlock has civil law relationship with its mother and her family as well as with the alleged man as the father to the extent of the scientific evidence and/or other evidence according to the laws have blood relationship, including civil relationship with his family.

According to the records of the court, the marriage of the parent was not registered or recorded. It means, the marriage was not legal. But previous marriage has been conducted but did not performed legally according to the Marriage. Therefore, the couple did not receive any marriage book or marriage certificate. 

As for the evidence, you need to supply DNA test that shows you are not excluded as the biological father. It must shows 99.99%. Well, you can put as many as "number 9" on the results. It just give you more bonafidity as the alleged father. So, the more "number 9" on the DNA certificate, the better.

Child Born of Adulterous Relationship

The relationship between the woman and the man who got her pregnant is without any marriage. The child has no legal relationship with the father and his family. Its only has relationship with its mother and her family. Therefore, the child is not able to inherit from its father, nor its can inherit to its father.

On the other hand, the man who got its mother pregnant has legal obligation in supporting the child financially, and to facilitate the child to inherit from his own last will.

In the event the woman is in marital relationship with her husband, and the man who got her pregnant claims the child as his, the law imposed that the child belongs to the woman's husband. Unless, if he denies the child. He may file an application to the court to deny the child and declare the child born of its mother's adulterous relationship.

Those three types of child legal status determine your situation and its level of difficulties in working with the legal system. I am not to say that one child may be better than the other. They have every rights to be legally protected, and the protection starts when you are there as their parents to support them, to feed them, to nurture them, to educate them, to teach them to get back on their feet after they felt, and to teach them to stand on their own.

You know, all the things a father would do for his child.

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My name is Asep Wijaya. Thank you for visiting my blogs and reading my posts!

We take marriage very serious in Indonesia. You need to meet certain requirements, terms and conditions in order to get legally married. Once you have been issued a marriage certificate, or a marriage book for Moslem couples, your marriage is legally recognized. The terms and conditions for a person to get legally married in Indonesia are, among others:

1. Consents by both parties; bride and groom;
2. They must be aged 21 years. They must obtain parents' approval, or either parent if one of them has passed-away, or from their guardian in the even both of them have passed-away.

Consents by both parties are required in order to avoid forced-marriage, or arranged marriage. Both bride and groom must love each other without any force to enter into a matrimony. This is in accordance with our philosophy that marriage is a spiritual bond between a man and a woman as husband and wife with the aim of forming a happy and eternal family (household) based on belief to one and only God. This aim most likely will not be met without consents of both parties.

The idea of having the couples aged 21 years old to get married without parents' consent, among others, is to have matured spouses in the matrimony as it requires emotional as well as physical efforts. 

The Applicant 

If you think a marriage does not meet the above terms and conditions, you may file a cancellation to the court of law. An application may be submitted to the court with a jurisdiction as governed by the 1974 Marriage Law. In order to file an annulment application, you must be either:

1. You are one of the parties in the marriage, either wife or husband;
2. You are the parents of the groom or the bride;
3. You are the authorized officer as governed by the Marriage Law;
4. Any party related with legal interest to the marriage. This can be, among others, a wife whose husband is getting married again without her approval for committing bigamy.

You need to pay attention to the time frame for filing the annulment with the ground that the marriage conducted under a threat. You have only six  (6) months to file for the annulment application to the court. After that, the law will see you accept the situation, and annulment is no longer the case. 

Legal Consequences

The marriage annulment will not take affect to your children's legal status. They are legitimate one, and therefore shall have the legal relationship with their father. The rights and obligations within parental relationship are still in place even the marriage has been canceled. 

As for the property, since the marriage declared annulled and therefore it's not legally recognized since day one, the property division is not applicable between the husband and wife that is not legally free to marry. This may happen especially when the previous marriage still exists and is not yet to be dissolved.

Key Take-away

Marriage annulment has many aspects to meet. Failure to do so will make the court reject your application. Instead of filing for the annulment, I would suggest you to go with a divorce application. You have more leeways and options in pursuing your goals. We have one legal ground that commonly used in the field of practice i.e. irreconcilable differences. 

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I am Asep Wijaya. Thank you for reading my blogs!

Postnuptial agreement  is another marital contract recognized under the laws and regulation in the Republic of Indonesia. It is a contract entered into by husband and wife within the course of their marriage. It is not valid retroactively and only applicable to property acquired after the contract legally executed.

As to other contracts under the legal system in Indonesia, both Article 1320 and 1338 of Civil Code are applicable to the postnuptial agreement. Those two articles are the basic rules for contracts in Indonesia, both for marital agreement as well as non-marital agreement.

Article 1320 of the Civil Code stipulates that in order to be valid, an agreement must satisfy the following four conditions: 1. there must be consent of the individuals who are bound thereby; 2. there must be capacity to enter into an obligation; 3. there must be a specific subject matter; 4. there must be a permitted cause. 

As for Article 1338 of Civil Code imposed that all valid agreements apply to the individuals who have concluded them as law. Such agreements are irrevocable other than by mutual consent, or pursuant to reasons stipulated by the law. They must be executed in good faith.

In view of the above two basic laws in recognizing the validity of the postnuptial agreement in Indonesia, married couples must abide those stipulation before they enter into the contract. Some required terms and conditions imposed by the Article 1320 of Civil Code are applicable thereto:

1. No consent is valid if it is granted based on mistake or obtained by duress or fraud. So, you need to have an informed consent from your spouse in order to enter into a postnup. A mistake does not render an agreement invalid unless such mistake pertains to the substance of the subject matter of the agreement. Duress against an individual who has entered into an agreement, provides grounds for nullification of the agreement, even if it was committed by a third party who does not benefit from the agreement. Fraud is form grounds for nullification of an agreement, if the fraud by one party is of such nature that it is apparent that the other party would never have concluded the agreement were it not for such deceit. Fraud is not be presumed, but must be proven.
2. Each individual is authorized to conclude agreements, unless he has been declared incompetent by law. The following individuals are incompetent to conclude agreements: 1. minors; 2. individuals under guardianship. Those individuals are incompetent to enter into agreements may claim for the nullification of the obligations, except for where the law excludes such power.
3. An agreement must at least have as a subject a matter a property whose nature is determined. The quantity of the matter needs not be ascertained, insofar such quantity can be determined or calculated at a later date. Future properties may be the subject of an agreement. An individual may not however, relinquish an inheritance which has not occurred or conclude an agreement regarding such inheritance, notwithstanding that he has obtained the consent of the testator.
4. Any agreement without a cause, or concluded pursuant to a fraudulent or prohibited cause, is not be enforceable. In the event that no cause is specified but that there is an existing permissible cause, or if there is a permissible cause other than the one specified, the agreement shall be valid. A cause is prohibited if it is prohibited by law, or if it violates morality or public order. 

As for the Article 1338 of Civil Code, the terms and conditions applicable to the postnuptial agreement are as follows:

All valid agreements apply to the individuals who have concluded them as law. In the postnuptial agreement, husband and wife sign the contract. So, the terms and conditions of the postnup applicable to both of them;

Such agreements are irrevocable other than by mutual consent, or pursuant to reasons stipulated by the law. You can't withdraw from the contract just because you changed your mind, and the contract no longer interests you. Your spouse consent in revoking the contract is required;

They must be executed in good faith. Agreements is bind the parties not only to that which is expressly stipulated, but also to that which, pursuant to the nature of the agreements, shall be imposed by propriety, customs, or the law. 

An agreement applies only to the parties thereto. An agreement cannot be detrimental to third parties; third parties cannot benefit from them. When you signed the contract, your parents are not included as one of the parties. You're an adult and you should take responsible for the thing you are doing.

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My name is Asep Wijaya. Thank you for visiting my blogs and reading my posts!