Marriage and registered partnership in the Netherlands produce almost the same legal position. Both create the same duty of mutual support, the same default matrimonial property regime, the same inheritance rights and the same rules on parentage and parental authority. Three differences remain: a marriage can only be ended by a court, while a registered partnership without minor children can be ended by agreement; a religious ceremony may only follow a civil marriage; and a marriage is recognised almost everywhere abroad, whereas a registered partnership is not.
The choice therefore rarely turns on rights within the Netherlands. It turns on how the relationship might end, and on whether the couple expects to live, work or inherit outside the country. This article sets out the conditions for entering into either form, the property regime that applies by default and how to depart from it, the position of children, what happens at the end, and the cross-border questions that decide the matter for most international couples.
Who can marry or enter into a registered partnership
The conditions are identical for both forms and identical for same-sex and different-sex couples. Both partners must be at least eighteen; since 2015 no exemption from that age limit is possible. Neither may already be married or in a registered partnership, in the Netherlands or elsewhere. Close relatives in the direct line and brothers and sisters may not marry each other, while cousins may. A person placed under guardianship needs the consent of the guardian, failing which the subdistrict court decides. At least one of the partners must be a Dutch national or lawfully resident in the Netherlands, and the registrar checks that condition before the notice is accepted.
The procedure is the same as well. The couple files a notice of intent with the municipality at least fourteen days before the ceremony; the notice remains valid for one year. Both partners produce identity documents and a birth certificate, and where a previous marriage or partnership has ended, the record of that dissolution. Foreign documents normally require legalisation or an apostille and a translation by a sworn translator, and the municipality may ask the immigration authorities to verify the residence status of a foreign partner. The civil act itself takes place before the registrar in the presence of two to four adult witnesses.
The ceremony differs on one point. A marriage is concluded by each partner declaring in person before the registrar that they take the other as spouse; a registered partnership is concluded by signing the deed. A religious ceremony may not take place before the civil marriage has been solemnised, and there is no religious counterpart to a registered partnership.
The property regime that applies by default
For everyone who married or registered a partnership from 1 January 2018 onwards, the default is the limited community of property. It is more limited than the older regime, and knowing what falls in and outside it is what prevents disputes years later. The community comprises what the partners acquire during the relationship and what already belonged to them jointly beforehand, together with the debts incurred during the relationship. Outside the community remain the assets and debts that belonged to one partner alone before the relationship began, and gifts and inheritances received before or during it. Since 2018 the exclusion of gifts and inheritances is the rule, so it is a clause including them in the community, rather than one excluding them, that a donor or testator now has to add.
Two mechanisms complete the picture. Where private money is used for a joint asset, or joint money for a private one, a right of reimbursement arises which in principle follows the value of the asset rather than the nominal sum invested, so an investment that has appreciated is repaid proportionally. And where one partner runs a business that is private property, the community is entitled to a reasonable compensation for the knowledge, skills and labour that the partner devoted to it. Because both mechanisms depend on evidence, keeping the paper trail of what came from where is worth more than any general agreement about fairness. The consequences of the regime are set out further in our article on limited community of property.
Some rules apply whatever the regime. Neither spouse or registered partner may sell or mortgage the family home, give a guarantee or make an unusual gift without the written consent of the other; an act performed without that consent can be annulled by the other partner. The duty to support each other, and to contribute to the costs of the household in proportion to income, also applies regardless of the property arrangements chosen.
Departing from the default with a notary
Couples who do not want the statutory regime can have a civil-law notary draw up prenuptial conditions (huwelijkse voorwaarden) or partnership conditions (partnerschapsvoorwaarden), either before the relationship is formalised or during it. The three arrangements that account for most instructions are a full exclusion of any community, so that each partner keeps and owes what is in their own name; a periodic settlement clause under which surplus income is settled each year; and a final settlement clause under which the partners settle as if a community had existed when the relationship ends. Business owners usually combine an exclusion with a settlement clause, so that the business stays out of the community while the other partner still shares in what it generated.
A periodic settlement clause that is never actually applied is the single most common problem in Dutch matrimonial property practice. Where the annual settlement was agreed but never carried out, the law presumes that all the assets present at the end of the relationship, including what was built up from undivided income, are to be settled as if they were common property. Reviewing the conditions every few years, and recording that the settlement has been done, prevents a claim that can run to a substantial part of the estate.
Children, parentage and parental authority
Since 2014 and the further changes of 2023, marriage and registered partnership are treated the same for children. The woman who gives birth is always a legal parent. If she is married to or in a registered partnership with a man at the time of the birth, he is the legal father by operation of law. If her partner is a woman, that partner is a legal parent by operation of law where the child was conceived with an anonymous donor and the required donor statement is produced; in other cases the partner becomes a legal parent by acknowledgement (erkenning) or, where that is not possible, by adoption. Legal parents who are married or registered partners hold joint parental authority automatically from the birth.
Unmarried couples are in a different position, although the gap has narrowed. Since 1 January 2023, an unmarried partner who acknowledges a child acquires joint parental authority through that acknowledgement itself, rather than having to make a separate application. Acknowledgement, however, still has to be arranged, and it establishes parentage only from the moment it is made. For couples who intend to have children and do not want the formal status, that step and a cohabitation agreement together cover most of what the law would otherwise arrange automatically.
Names, inheritance and pensions
Spouses and registered partners may use each other surname, and each is the other legal heir. Where there is no will, the statutory division applies: the surviving partner receives all the assets of the estate and takes over the debts, while the children receive a monetary claim that in principle only becomes payable on the death of the surviving partner. A cohabiting partner without a will inherits nothing, however long the relationship has lasted, which is the sharpest practical difference between the formal statuses and cohabitation.
Pensions follow the scheme rather than the civil status, but the statutory rules are the same for both forms. On divorce or dissolution of a registered partnership, the old-age pension accrued during the relationship is in principle equalised between the partners, and the partner who wants the administrator to pay their share directly must notify the pension administrator within two years of the dissolution; after that period the claim remains, but it has to be settled between the partners themselves. Survivor pension is a separate entitlement governed by the scheme rules, and the conditions differ between schemes, so both are worth checking before rather than after the relationship is formalised. Maintenance after the relationship ends is available in both forms; the rules on partner maintenance limit the duration to half the length of the marriage or partnership with a statutory maximum, subject to exceptions for long relationships and for young children.
How each form ends
This is where the two forms genuinely diverge. A marriage can only be dissolved by the court. Even where both spouses agree on everything, the divorce petition is filed by a lawyer and the marriage ends when the decree is entered in the register of births, deaths, marriages and registered partnerships; the entry must be made within six months of the decree becoming final, failing which the divorce lapses. Legal separation (scheiding van tafel en bed), which ends the community of property but not the marriage, exists only for marriages.
A registered partnership can be ended without a court where both partners agree and there are no minor children over whom they exercise authority. They record their agreement about maintenance, the division of property and pension in a written agreement signed by both partners and by a lawyer or a civil-law notary, who then files a declaration with the registrar. The partnership ends on registration. Where there are minor children, or where the partners do not agree, the same court route applies as for a divorce, and the arrangements for the children are assessed by the court in the same way. Disagreement does not block the ending of either form: neither a marriage nor a partnership can be kept alive by one partner refusing to cooperate, as we explain in our article on divorce without the consent of the other partner.
Conversion runs in one direction only. A registered partnership can be converted into a marriage by a deed drawn up by the registrar, and the conversion does not interrupt the relationship: the property regime and the legal relationship continue unbroken from the original date. The reverse conversion, from marriage into registered partnership, was abolished in 2009 precisely because it had been used to end marriages without a court. Couples who registered a partnership and later need a marriage, for a religious ceremony or for recognition abroad, therefore have a straightforward route. The background to the current rules is discussed in our article on the registered partnership and the proposals to modernise it.
Recognition abroad and cross-border couples
A Dutch marriage is recognised in almost every country. A Dutch registered partnership is not: some states treat it as a marriage, some as a lesser form of cohabitation and some do not recognise it at all. The consequences are practical. Residence permits and family reunification abroad may require a marriage, a foreign employer or insurer may not accept a partnership for benefits, and an inheritance opened in another country may be settled as though the surviving partner were a stranger.
Within the European Union the position is better organised but still split. The property consequences of marriages and those of registered partnerships are governed by two separate regulations, both applying to relationships formalised from 29 January 2019 or where a choice of law was made from that date, and each with its own default rule. Jurisdiction in divorce is governed by the Brussels II ter regulation, which does not cover the dissolution of registered partnerships; for those, jurisdiction is determined by national rules, and the Dutch courts retain jurisdiction over a partnership that was entered into in the Netherlands. Maintenance is covered by the maintenance regulation for both forms. Couples with a foreign element should also register a marriage or partnership concluded abroad in the Dutch population register, after legalisation or apostille and sworn translation, because Dutch authorities and pension administrators work from that registration.
Immigration abroad deserves separate checking. Some countries do not accept a registered partnership for visa or family reunion purposes, and the requirement is set by the destination country rather than by Dutch law. If an international move is realistically in prospect, that consideration usually decides the choice.
Registered partnership compared with a cohabitation agreement
A registered partnership is a civil status; a cohabitation agreement (samenlevingscontract) is a contract. The contract can regulate the household costs, the ownership of the home and its contents, and what happens if the relationship ends, and it is usually the instrument through which a pension administrator recognises a partner for survivor pension. What it cannot do is create the status effects: cohabitants are not each other heirs without a will, they have no statutory maintenance duty towards each other after separation, they do not fall within the matrimonial property regime, and parentage and authority have to be arranged separately. For couples who want to keep their finances apart but protect each other, the combination of a cohabitation agreement, mutual wills and a pension registration achieves much of it; for couples who want the protection to follow automatically, one of the two formal statuses is the simpler route.
Making the choice
If cross-border recognition matters, or a religious ceremony is intended, marriage is the safer form. If the relationship is expected to stay within the Netherlands and both partners value the possibility of ending it without a court, a registered partnership offers that, provided there are no minor children. In every other respect the choice is neutral, and the arrangements that actually determine the financial outcome, being the property conditions, the wills and the pension registrations, are the same in both cases and are the ones worth spending time on.
Law & More advises Dutch and international couples on the choice between marriage and a registered partnership, on prenuptial and partnership conditions, on the recognition of foreign marriages and partnerships, and on the dissolution of either form, including the arrangements for children, maintenance and pension. If your situation involves another country, complex assets or children, contact Law & More before the formalities are completed.
