Cap. 16 Art. 633Rightofhabitation.

(1) The surviving spouse shall be entitled to the right of habitation over the tenement occupied as the principal residence by the said surviving spouse at the time of the decease of the predeceased spouse, where the same tenement is held in full ownership or emphyteusis by the deceased spouse either alone or jointly with the surviving spouse.

(2) The extent of the tenement subject to the right of habitation shall not be limited on the grounds that, after the death of the predeceased spouse the surviving spouse requires a lesser part of the tenement.

(3) For the purposes of articles 631 and 632, the tenement subject to the right of habitation under this article shall be excluded from the estate of the deceased over which the surviving spouse has a reserved portion.

(4) The provisions of article 395 shall not apply to the right of habitation granted under this article.

(5) The right conferred in sub-article (1) shall subsist even where such right has the effect of reducing, during the lifetime of the surviving spouse, the reserved portion due to any other person.

(6) Where a creditor of the deceased spouse enforces his right over the tenement subject to the right under this article, or where the heirs who have accepted the inheritance with the benefit of inventory sell such tenement in satisfaction of any debt due by the inheritance, and in either case there exists other assets of the inheritance with which such debts may be satisfied, the surviving spouse shall have a right to demand, within one year of the sale, damages from the heirs of the deceased spouse, or from the heirs of the deceased spouse who have accepted with the benefit of inventory who shall not have taken any possible action to pay such debts out of the other assets.

(7) The spouses may, in a pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement, in accordance with this Code, whichever patrimonial regime is to regulate their property, exclude or reduce the right competent to the surviving spouse in virtue of this article.

(8) The right of habitation conferred in this article shall cease on the remarriage of the surviving spouse, or if the surviving spouse enters into a public deed of cohabitation.