A cohabitation agreement is the contract in which unmarried and unregistered partners record their arrangements. Unlike marriage, Dutch law provides cohabitants with almost nothing by default: without an agreement there is no claim on each other’s property, no maintenance duty and no inheritance right.
Legal basis
There is no statutory title for cohabitation. The agreement rests on the general law of obligations in Book 6 of the Civil Code. Other regimes do attach to it: pension schemes generally require a notarial cohabitation agreement for a partner’s pension, and the partner exemption in inheritance tax requires a notarial agreement with a mutual duty of care and a minimum period of cohabitation. When the relationship ends, a right to compensation may arise under Article 6:212 on unjust enrichment or under reasonableness and fairness, but that requires evidence and regularly leads to litigation.
How it works in practice
A workable agreement covers four things: what belonged to whom at the outset, how household costs are shared, what happens to a jointly used home and to investments in it, and whether anything is to be settled when the relationship ends. A survivorship clause for jointly owned assets is common. For children the rules on parental authority apply independently; since 2023 acknowledgement automatically creates joint authority.
Where it goes wrong
The greatest source of conflict is a home registered in one partner’s name to which the other contributed through mortgage payments or renovation. Without a recorded arrangement the claim is difficult to substantiate. A second error is failing to register the partner with the pension provider, so that no partner’s pension is payable on death. Third, without a will there is no inheritance right either way.
Related terms
The agreement sits alongside the registered partnership and the prenuptial agreement, and connects to the acknowledgement of a child.
Living together without anything on paper? Our family law specialists map the risks.
