Dear Queenie,
I need to know this in a hurry. When an engaged couple break up, who gets to keep the engagement ring?
Queenie, that diamond cost a lot of money, so who should get to keep it?—Jilted
Dear Jilted,
It depends on who breaks the engagement.
An engagement ring is the tangible symbol of the promises two people make to each other that they will be married – a spoken contract to marry. The one who breaks his/her promise has to pay damages, so to speak.
To put it simply, if the man breaks the engagement the woman gets to keep the ring, but if the woman breaks the engagement she has an obligation to give it back.
If they break up by mutual agreement, they should also come to an agreement about the ring, which usually represents a considerable financial investment, as you say. I would suggest that they sell the ring and split the proceeds. After all, why would either of them want to keep the symbol of their shattered romance?
However, if the ring was a family heirloom, in all fairness it should be returned to the family from which it came, even if it was the member of that family who broke the engagement. In that case, some compensation would be in order.
