What Dutch family law covers
Book 1 of the Civil Code deals with persons and family. It regulates marriage and registered partnership, the property regime that comes with them, divorce and dissolution, parentage and acknowledgement, adoption, parental authority, contact arrangements, child and spousal maintenance, names, and the protective measures for adults who cannot look after their own affairs: curatorship (curatele), administration (bewind) and mentorship (mentorschap). Two further bodies of rules sit alongside it. Book 4 governs inheritance, which is where family relationships determine who inherits and how much. And the Code of Civil Procedure sets out how family cases are brought: most are started by petition, and a divorce petition must be filed by a lawyer. What Dutch family law does not do is leave the arrangements entirely to the parties. Large parts of it are mandatory. You cannot contract out of the duty to maintain your own child, you cannot divorce without a court order, and a court will test any arrangement concerning children against their interests before confirming it. That combination of private choice and mandatory review is why family law reaches people who never expected to deal with it.Why the form of your relationship matters
Dutch law recognises three ways of organising a relationship, and the differences between them are far larger than most couples assume. Marriage and registered partnership are almost identical in their legal effects. Both create a statutory property regime, a mutual duty of support, automatic inheritance rights and, where children are born within the relationship, automatic joint parental authority. The main practical difference lies in the exit: a marriage can only be dissolved by the court, while a registered partnership without minor children can be ended out of court by an agreement drawn up with a lawyer or civil-law notary and registered with the registrar of births, deaths and marriages. Our article on ending a registered partnership sets out that route. Living together without either status is the third option, and it is legally the emptiest one. Cohabitants owe each other no maintenance, share no property by operation of law, and do not inherit from one another. Long-term cohabitation does not change that, however many years it lasts. Everything cohabiting partners want must be arranged deliberately: a cohabitation agreement (samenlevingscontract) for the property side, mutual wills for inheritance, a partner registration with the pension fund for survivor benefits, and acknowledgement of a child for the legal relationship with that child. That last point has changed in a way worth knowing. Since 1 January 2023 an unmarried partner who acknowledges a child automatically acquires joint parental authority with the mother in most cases, where previously a separate court application was needed. For children acknowledged before that date the old position still applies, so parents who acknowledged a child years ago should check what was actually registered.Property: what is shared and what stays yours
Children: authority, care and maintenance
Parental authority (gezag) is the power to make decisions about a child and to represent the child legally. Married and registered partners hold it jointly, and since 2023 acknowledgement generally produces the same result for unmarried partners. Joint authority survives a separation: parents who separate keep making decisions together about school, medical treatment, residence and travel, and one parent cannot unilaterally move a child abroad. Where parents with minor children separate, a parenting plan (ouderschapsplan) is compulsory. It must set out the division of care, how the parents will consult each other and inform each other, and how the costs of the children are met, and it has to be filed with the divorce petition. Children are involved according to their age and capacity, and from the age of twelve the court will normally hear them. Our guide to the parenting plan in the Netherlands covers what it must contain. Both parents owe maintenance for their children until the child turns twenty-one, and for children between eighteen and twenty-one that obligation exists regardless of whether the young adult is studying. Amounts are worked out with the maintenance guidelines drawn up by the judiciary expert group, which start from the needs of the child and the capacity of each parent to pay; running maintenance is indexed each year by a percentage set by the Minister of Justice and Security. Anyone quoting a fixed figure without doing that calculation is guessing. When circumstances change substantially, maintenance can be reviewed. That is a court application, not a matter of simply paying less: stopping payments unilaterally leads to collection through the national maintenance collection agency and to arrears that do not disappear.Maintenance between former partners
Spouses and registered partners owe each other maintenance after the relationship ends, if one of them cannot reasonably provide for their own support. Cohabitants do not, unless they agreed otherwise in writing. Since 1 January 2020 the duration of spousal maintenance is in principle half the length of the marriage, with a ceiling of five years. Three exceptions extend it. Where the couple has a child under twelve, the obligation runs until the youngest child reaches that age. Where a marriage lasted more than fifteen years and the recipient will reach state pension age within ten years, it runs until that age. And for older recipients born before a date fixed in the transitional rules, a longer term applies. The court can extend the period further where ending it would be unreasonably harsh. The amount depends on need on one side and capacity to pay on the other, and it is recalculated when incomes change materially. Remarriage, registration of a new partnership or living together with a new partner as if married ends the entitlement definitively.When family law reaches into a business
Family law and company law meet more often than entrepreneurs expect. If shares in a private limited company, a partnership interest or a sole proprietorship fall within a matrimonial community, they have to be valued and settled when the relationship ends, and that can put pressure on the business itself. Even where the business is private property, an entitlement to compensation may arise if it grew in value through effort or through money that came out of the community.
Prenuptial conditions and the company documentation should be read together. A shareholders agreement that requires the consent of co-shareholders for a transfer, an offer procedure in the articles of association, or a valuation method agreed in advance, all shape what a divorce can and cannot do to the company. Where they contradict the marriage settlement, the dispute becomes considerably more expensive.
Succession works the same way. Book 4 of the Civil Code allocates an estate between the surviving spouse and the children, and children have a claim to a statutory share (legitieme portie) even if they are disinherited. For a family business that means an heir who is not involved in the company can still hold a monetary claim against it. Wills, marriage settlements and shareholder arrangements need to be aligned; our overview of Dutch inheritance law explains the statutory division. The tax consequences of a business transfer are a separate matter, and one for your tax adviser rather than your lawyer.International families: which court and which law
Dutch family law rarely stands alone in a household with more than one nationality. Jurisdiction in divorce and parental responsibility cases within the EU follows the Brussels II ter Regulation, maintenance follows the Maintenance Regulation, and for marriages concluded from 29 January 2019 the Matrimonial Property Regulation determines which country’s property law applies. The result is that a Dutch court may be competent while foreign law governs the property, or the reverse. Two practical consequences follow. First, where more than one court has jurisdiction, the party who files first often determines where the case is heard, which makes timing a real consideration. Second, a choice of applicable law can usually be made in advance, in a marriage settlement or a separate document, and doing so removes a whole layer of dispute later. Child abduction cases are governed by the 1980 Hague Convention and are heard in the Netherlands by a specialised chamber of the court in The Hague, with strict time limits. If a child has been taken abroad or is not returned after a holiday, the matter is urgent in the legal sense as well as the practical one. Intercountry adoption has been restricted since 21 May 2024: no new applications are accepted and the existing system is being wound down over the following years. Prospective parents who started a procedure before that date fall under transitional arrangements.What you can arrange in advance
Almost every dispute we see could have been made smaller by a document signed while the relationship was still good. Four are worth considering. A cohabitation agreement records what each partner contributes, who owns the household contents and the home, and what happens if the relationship ends. For cohabitants it also serves as proof of partnership towards pension funds and tax authorities. Marriage or partnership settlements determine the property regime and, where a business is involved, how it is kept out of the community. A settlement containing a periodic settlement clause only works if the settlement is actually carried out each year. A will determines who inherits, appoints an executor, and can protect an inheritance from ending up in a child’s future divorce through an exclusion clause. Cohabitants without a will inherit nothing from each other. A power of attorney (levenstestament) appoints someone to act for you if you can no longer decide for yourself, and avoids the need for a court to appoint an administrator or mentor. It is drawn up by a notary and can be tailored to financial affairs, medical decisions or both. None of these documents is a formality. Each one converts a default rule you may not want into an arrangement you chose.What to do if a family matter is coming your way
Start with the facts rather than with the emotion: establish the date of the marriage or partnership, whether a settlement was made, what property existed before and what was built up during the relationship, and what has been agreed about the children. Collect the documents before positions harden, because access to information becomes harder once the parties are in conflict. Then decide what kind of process you want. Many cases can be settled by agreement, with a single mediating lawyer or with two lawyers negotiating, and only the confirmed outcome going to court. Others need provisional measures immediately, for instance about the use of the family home or urgent maintenance. The choice affects cost, speed and the relationship that survives the case, which matters most where children are involved. Law & More advises on marriage settlements and cohabitation agreements, divorce and dissolution, parenting plans and maintenance, and on family matters that cross borders. If you want to know where you stand, our family law team will go through your situation with you; you can also see who does what on our team page.Frequently asked questions
What are the key areas covered by family law?
In the Netherlands family law is set out mainly in Book 1 of the Civil Code. It covers marriage and registered partnership, marriage settlements and cohabitation agreements, divorce and dissolution, parentage, acknowledgement and adoption, parental authority and contact, child and spousal maintenance, and the protective measures of curatorship, administration and mentorship for adults.
How does family law protect individual rights?
Dutch family law protects people mainly through mandatory rules and judicial review. A marriage can only be dissolved by the court, a parenting plan is compulsory where there are minor children, the duty to maintain a child cannot be contracted away, and a court tests arrangements concerning children against the interests of the child before confirming them.
Why is family law important in personal relationships?
Because the legal consequences of cohabiting, registering a partnership and marrying differ sharply. Marriage and registered partnership create a statutory property regime, a duty of support and inheritance rights; cohabitants have none of these by operation of law and must arrange them in a cohabitation agreement, a will and a pension registration.
How does family law interact with business and corporate contexts?
A separation reaches a business as soon as shares or an enterprise fall within a matrimonial community, because they then have to be valued and settled. Even a business held privately can give rise to a compensation claim if it grew in value during the relationship. Marriage settlements, the articles of association and any shareholders agreement need to be aligned in advance.
