The National Council has voted to adopt a new Civil Code (Občiansky zákonník), which is to replace the current body of legislation that has been in force since 1964.
The updated code significantly expands the regulation of private-law relations and brings together in a single law provisions that are currently contained in both the Civil Code and the Commercial Code. Its provisions will enter into force on 1 July 2027.
The Ministry of Justice describes the reform as the largest overhaul of private law in decades. The new code contains around 1,900 sections, compared with approximately 880 under the current legislation.
Inheritance
Under the current legislation, the main ways of determining what happens to a person’s property after death are intestate succession and a will. The new code adds several other options.
An inheritance agreement (dedičská zmluva) will allow a person to agree during their lifetime with a future heir that certain property will be transferred to them after their death. There will also be an inheritance waiver agreement (zmluva o zrieknutí sa dedičstva), allowing a person to waive their future inheritance in advance.
The law will also introduce a legacy (odkaz) and a testamentary order (príkaz). These allow a person not only to designate an heir, but also to impose a specific obligation on them or transfer particular property to a specific person.
For example, an heir may receive an apartment while also being required to transfer a certain amount of money to another person or fulfil another condition specified in the will.
An estate administrator will also be introduced, who will be able to manage the deceased’s estate until the inheritance proceedings are finally completed.
The range of relatives who can inherit under the law will also be expanded. The aim of this change is to reduce the number of situations in which property ultimately passes to the state because there are no suitable heirs.
The rules for so-called forced heirs — primarily the children of the deceased — will also change. Current law limits the ability to completely disinherit descendants. The new code reduces the guaranteed share that such heirs can claim regardless of the contents of the will (negatívny závet).
This means that, provided the conditions of the new law are met, people will have greater freedom to leave their property to heirs or other persons instead of their children.
Joint Property
The current concept of spouses’ undivided co-ownership (bezpodielové spoluvlastníctvo manželov, BSM) will be replaced by the concept of joint property of spouses (spoločné imanie manželov).
In practice, the basic principle will remain the same: property acquired during a marriage will generally form part of the spouses’ joint property. However, the new code will explicitly include debts incurred during the marriage in this regime as well.
At the same time, spouses will be able to agree on a different arrangement either before or during the marriage. For example, they will be able to specify which property will be jointly owned and which will remain the property of one spouse. This will make it easier for spouses to establish their own contractual property regime instead of applying the standard rules set out by law.
Legal Capacity
The new code abolishes the concept of full deprivation of legal capacity. Instead, a court will be able to restrict a person’s legal capacity only in specific matters and only for as long as necessary. In ordinary day-to-day matters, the person will retain the ability to make decisions independently.
A supported decision-making mechanism will also be introduced. A person will be able to appoint an assistant who will provide information and help them make legally significant decisions, but will not automatically make those decisions on their behalf.
In addition, a person will be able to specify in advance who should help them make decisions and how that assistance should be provided if they lose the ability to make decisions themselves in the future.
Contractual Relations
At present, similar contracts may be governed by different rules depending on who enters into them and which legal regime applies to the contract. The new code will eliminate this division. For example, sales contracts and contracts for work will be governed by uniform rules, regardless of whether they are concluded between two individuals, between a business and an individual, or between two companies.
For businesses, this means that the main rules governing the conclusion and performance of such contracts will no longer have to be sought in two separate codes.
The new code will also introduce several mechanisms that either do not currently exist or are not regulated in sufficient detail. For example, it will explicitly establish liability for bad-faith negotiations. This means that a party negotiating a contract will not be able to deliberately create a false impression that the contract will be concluded without consequences if they never intended to conclude it in the first place.
It will also be possible to transfer a contract to another person if the conditions established by law are met.
The code will establish a unified system of remedies for breach of contract. Instead of fragmented rules, there will be a general set of remedies, such as demanding performance of an obligation, remedying a breach, withdrawing from a contract or seeking compensation in cases provided for by law.
The new code will separately regulate legal acts in electronic form and relations involving digital services. This means that electronic contracts and other legal acts will be more clearly integrated into the general system of private law rather than being governed primarily by separate provisions.
Unified Limitation Period
The general limitation period (premlčacia lehota) will be three years. For contractual relations, however, the parties will be able to agree on a different period ranging from one to ten years. The three-year period will therefore serve as the default, while the parties will be able to establish a shorter or longer period in certain cases.
Real Estate
The rules governing property leases will introduce an inflation adjustment clause. This will allow the parties to provide in advance for rent to be adjusted in line with inflation, rather than having to conclude a new agreement every time the price changes. New rules will also apply to rental deposits (kaucia), including a limit on their amount.
At the same time, the outdated legal concept of the lease of non-residential premises will be removed. Instead, the law will use more specific categories for the lease of buildings and parts of buildings, including commercial premises.
The new code will also strengthen the protection of good-faith buyers. In particular, it introduces the principle of material publicity of the cadastre, allowing people who acquire property to rely to a greater extent on information recorded in the land register.
If a buyer has acted in good faith, relied on a registered right and fulfilled the conditions established by law, the new mechanism should protect them from certain problems arising from previously concealed transfers of ownership.
Transitional Period
The new rules will not automatically apply to all existing contracts.
According to Justice Minister Boris Susko, contractual relationships established before the new code enters into force will generally continue to be governed by the previous rules. Therefore, already concluded long-term contracts, mortgage agreements and insurance contracts, for example, should not automatically switch to the new legal regime.
The new rules will primarily apply to relationships arising after 1 July 2027.
