The Court of Appeal Allowed the Mother to Register the Child's Place of Residence Without the Father's Consent

The Khmelnytskyi Court of Appeal considered a case in which the mother of a minor child challenged the refusal to grant permission to change the child's place of residence registration without the father's consent.

Circumstances of case No. 759/1645/25

After the dissolution of the marriage between the former spouses, a dispute arose regarding the registration of the place of residence of their minor daughter. The mother claimed that due to the father's refusal to give the necessary consent, she could not register the daughter's place of residence with her in the house that belongs to her.

The woman filed a lawsuit requesting permission to change the minor child's place of residence registration without the father's written consent. She stated that after the divorce in 2023, the daughter remained living with her. The father pays child support by court order. The girl's place of residence is registered at the address of the plaintiff's parents.

According to the woman, during the marriage the parties built a residential house, the ownership right to which was registered in her name. In 2022, the husband, under an agreement on the allocation of real estate from the marital property, allocated his share in the house and soon after gifted it to another woman.

Despite repeated requests from the mother, he refused to give consent to register the daughter's place of residence in this house, due to which she asked the court to grant the appropriate permission without his consent.

The Khmelnytskyi City District Court denied the claim. The court reasoned that the parties had not registered the place of residence in the disputed house, ownership and use rights of which are still under dispute among co-owners, and the plaintiff did not prove the fact of living there with the child nor confirmed that the change of registration corresponds to the best interests of the child.

Disagreeing with this decision, the plaintiff filed an appeal. In her opinion, the court did not take into account that the house is the only home for her and her daughter, and the father's refusal to give consent to registration hinders the child's right to register the place of residence at the address of her actual residence.

What the court decided

The Court of Appeal noted that the place of residence of the plaintiff and the child is registered in an apartment that does not belong to them. At the same time, the woman is the owner of a share in the residential house and intends to live there with her daughter.

The court stated that the father's lack of consent to register the daughter's place of residence in the house is due to the absence of an actual division of this house among the co-owners.

"Such refusal of the defendant to change the registration of the minor daughter's place of residence is not caused by objective reasons, i.e., it is unfounded. At the same time, the defendant's refusal to allow the registration of the daughter's place of residence in the residential house owned by her mother, with the simultaneous deregistration of the child from the apartment of third parties, does not correspond to the interests of the child," the Court of Appeal stated.

Under these circumstances, the panel of judges concluded that there are grounds to grant permission to register the minor child's place of residence together with the mother in the residential house without the father's consent. At the same time, the consent of the co-owner of the house is not required, since the child's place of residence registration is carried out at the future registration address of her mother.

Therefore, the Court of Appeal satisfied the plaintiff's appeal: it canceled the decision of the court of first instance and adopted a new one – to satisfy the claim.

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