A marriage in Hungary may only be terminated by the courts. The court may grant divorce at the request of either or both spouses if their marriage has completely and irreversibly broken down.  The marriage shall be considered to have broken down if the relationship of the spouses has worn-out and there is no reasonable expectation of reconciliation.

Thus in effect there is two ways to get a divorce in Hungary.  The first one is by mutual consent, whereby the parties mutually consent to a divorce and agree in the ancillary questions. Or the second is a contested divorce, in which case it must be established that the marriage has completely and irreversibly broken down and the come to a decision on all ancillary questions.

When a divorce is granted by mutual consent the court will not examine circumstances underlying the failure of the marriage. Instead the spouses’ final and common declaration of will establishes the complete and irretrievable broken down state of their marriage. In this case, besides the common declaration, the spouses must agree in custody, visitation rights and child support in connection with their mutual child and, if applicable they must agree in the use their home and spousal support (alimony). On the other hand, if the spouses agreed to exercise joint custody, then no agreement is required regarding visitation rights. However, they do have to define the child’s place of residence. Provided that their agreement is approved by the court, then the divorce may be granted. As a general rule, the dissolution of marriage shall be carried out in consideration of the best interest of the mutual child.

Thus, the extent of issues to be settled by spouses before obtaining a divorce based on mutual consent will be decided by whether they wish to exercise joint custody or not.

If there is no agreement in relation to the custody of the child, then the court will decide which parent shall have the right of custody.