Child custody in Hungary

The parents have joint custody whether they are living together or no longer live together, unless an agreement or a decision of the court or guardianship authority provides otherwise.

The official fact sheet does not distinguish unmarried parents once paternity is established.

The unmarried father, in one line: Both parents have it, married or not, once the father's paternity is established.

Joint custody continues unless the parents agree otherwise or the court decides otherwise. Parents can divide rights and duties by agreement, which the court approves. Without agreement the court decides which parent has custody, based on where the child's development is better ensured. The court can give one parent full custody or split specific rights between them, but it cannot order joint custody, which only the parents' agreement can create.

In justified cases the court must hear the child, and it must do so if the child asks. If the child is at least 14, the court can decide custody and placement only with the child's consent, unless the child's choice would endanger their development.

Settling the child's residence abroad for a long stay or for good is a fundamental issue on which the other parent still has a say, even where one parent has sole custody.

Hungary is a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, which lets a parent ask for a child wrongly taken to another country to be returned. It works only with countries that have accepted its accession, so check the other country on the treaty status table.

Within the EU, Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 (called Brussels IIb) decides which country's courts handle parental responsibility: in principle the courts of the country where the child habitually lives, and it speeds up the return of a child wrongly taken to another member state. Denmark does not take part in it.

Hungary belongs to the Civil law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Hungary legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Hungary? →
Divorce rate and trend in Hungary →

• European e-Justice Portal: parental responsibility, child custody and contact rights in Hungary