Unless stipulated otherwise with a prenuptial agreement, marriage or registered partnership automatically takes place in ‘limited community of property’ . Only the assets and debts that were jointly owned by both partners before the marriage or registered partnership and future assets and debts fall into the community of property. Assets that were solely yours before the marriage or registered partnership, will remain solely yours.

Inheritances and gifts you received before and during the marriage or registered partnership will remain solely yours, unless the donor has decided otherwise or the deceased person has decided differently in his will.

This must be drafted by a notary and entered in a matrimonial property register at the municipality where the marriage notice or notice about registered partnership is placed. It is also possible to make a postnuptial agreement during the marriage or registered partnership.

Marriage and registered partnership are both relationships formalized by law. The most important differences between the two kinds of arrangements were eliminated on 1 April, 2014, and what remains is primarily the absence of a religious ceremony in the case of a registered partnership, and the fact that a registered partnership and its legal consequences may not always be accepted in other countries. Furthermore, how to dissolve a marriage and a registered partnership differs in that a registered partnership can be ended without the involvement of the courts if you have no children under the age of 18. A marriage can only be dissolved by a court.

In principle, as in marriage, all possessions and debts are generally shared jointly in the registered partnership, but different arrangements can be made by instructing a notary to draw up a pre-partnership agreement, similar to a prenuptial one.

If you plan to get married, you first need to notify the municipality. This is called ondertrouw (notice of intent to marry). This must be made at the gemeente  (municipality) of residence of one of the partners involved. You need to do this at least two weeks before the intended wedding date and the wedding must take place within one year of the ondertrouw. If the one-year period expires, then another submission is required. Make an appointment with the ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand (registrar) in the municipality in which you wish to marry or enter into partnership. The registrar will tell you which documents to bring for the meeting.

Furthermore, you will need to appoint at least two and no more than four witnesses. The witnesses must be 18 years or older.
Once the documents have been presented to the gemeente a date and venue for the ceremony may be selected. During this period the couple will meet with the official who will perform the marriage ceremony. In some areas, arrangements can be made with a marrying official for the ceremony to be held in English. However, the vows are legally required to be in Dutch.

The civil ceremony may take place in a gemeente other than that of residence but the municipality of residence must be informed so that arrangements for transferring documents can be made.

The  ondertrouw is provided free of charge. However, there could be other costs involved such as an appointment at the ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand  and for various documents where costs are specific to certain situations. Please contact your municipality for more details.

In the Netherlands, marriages may only be blessed by religious institutions after the civil marriage has taken place. It is up to the institutions to bless or solemnise the marriage. They are not obliged to do so. It is advisable to check with the religious institution of your choice.

Unlike a marriage, a registered partnership may not be blessed in a religious institution.

For every divorce element, different rulings determine which law is applicable. The most important divorce elements are: the divorce itself , child and spousal support, division of assets and property, children (parental authority, access rights) and pension. These rules are found in European Union regulations, conventions and the Dutch Civil Law. In most regulations, there are possibilities to opt for a certain law (for example on the divorce itself or the matrimonial regime), so be sure to get solid advice from a competent lawyer on this matter. Even if you share the same nationality, an international divorce will most likely incorporate aspects that may be subject to different national laws.

Sometimes filing a divorce in the Netherlands will suit you best; in other cases filing it abroad might be a better option.
If your partner has already filed for a divorce in any country, you cannot file for divorce anywhere else.
If you decide to file for divorce in the Netherlands, make sure that it will be recognized in your home country.

For two Dutch nationals, it is always possible to divorce in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Court has international competence when the two spouses live in the Netherlands, regardless of their nationality.

If only one of the spouses lives in the Netherlands and they don’t have a common Dutch nationality, the Dutch court is authorised as well, but in some cases it is necessary that one of the spouses has lived here at least one year. With ‘live’ is meant habitual residence. Only being registered in the Netherlands is insufficient to file for a divorce.

Once the Dutch Court is authorised regarding the divorce itself, the Dutch Court is also authorised regarding other divorce elements (assets, alimony, pension, etc.), except when it comes to children. Only when the children ‘live’ in the Netherlands does the Dutch Court have international competence. If not, the Dutch Court cannot make decisions about parental authority, access rights, etc.

In the Netherlands, all cases of echtscheiding (divorce) have to be granted by the court. Since only a lawyer has the authority to file a petition for divorce with the court, the first thing that you can do is to seek legal advice from a good divorce lawyer or mediator.

According to the Dutch law, there is just one ground for divorce: irreparable breakdown of the marriage. The marriage can be said to have irreparably broken down if continuing to live together has become unbearable and there is no prospect of a restoration of marital relations. The judge is not interested in the question of blame at all. The behaviour that has led to the divorce has no influence on the decision as to how the assets should be split or how much alimony should be paid.

The divorce proceedings may be instituted by both spouses jointly (a joint petition) or by just one of them (a unilateral petition), and a divorce petition may be filed at any time after marriage: there is no requirement for the parties to have been married for a certain number of years or to have lived separately for a certain number of years.

If the divorce is by mutual request, is uncontested it is not necessary for you to go to court physically. The divorce settlement can be drawn up by a lawyer or a mediator, signed by both partners and sent to the court for authorisation via a lawyer, which is almost always given if both partners have signed the agreement. If you have children younger than 18 years, a parenting plan is a requirement. Furthermore, children from the age of 12 years have the right to be heard by the court. So even if you have a divorce with a mutual request and it is not necessary for you to go the court, children of 12 years and older will receive an invitation from the court to be heard.

If only one of you wishes to end the relationship, or you are not agreeing on topics regarding your divorce, there is a great chance that you have to go to court physically.

The divorce comes into effect when the court ruling has been entered in the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages of your municipality by either you or your lawyer. This has to be done six months after the court ruling, it is not open for appeal anymore.

In case of divorce, you retain joint custody of the children, as during the marriage.

During the divorce procedure in the case of minor children, you need to make a ouderschapsplan (parenting plan) in which you state the following:

• How you will share responsibility for the care and upbringing of your children
• How you should inform and consult each other regarding important decisions such as the choice of school
• How the expenses related to the children are to be shared, and the amount of maintenance to be paid for the them

You must also include and discuss the children’s wishes.

If you do not wish to share parental responsibility you can petition the court to assign it to one of you. The court decides who will be granted responsibility, and if you have more than one child, the court will assign parental responsibility for each child independently. However, it is not common to assign the parental responsibility to one of you. The basic rule is that both parents have parental responsibility.

When registering a death you will need to bring the following documents:

• A valid identity document of the person making the registration and of the deceased
• Your marriage certificate/partnership registration (if you were married  to the deceased or had a registered partnership)
• A doctor’s statement concerning the death of the individual
• In case you want the funeral to take place later than six working days after the death has occurred, you need permission from the mayor. Check with the municipality which procedure should be followed.

Repatriation of a dead person to the home country requires the help of the relevant local Embassy or Consulate. Consular officials can assist you in having the remains returned, in obtaining appropriate documentation and in inquiring about the Dutch repatriation requirements.

If you are not a Dutch citizen and you already have a will that was made according to the laws of the country in which it was drawn up, in principle, the will is also valid in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is party to the Convention Providing a Uniform Law on the Form of International Will and usually recognises wills drawn up in another country. However, one of the conditions required is that the will has been drawn up in keeping with the law of that country. Verbal wills are not valid in the Netherlands.

It is advisable to consult a Dutch notaris  (notary) who is familiar with the registration and execution of foreign wills so that he/she can check whether the contents of the will conflict with Dutch law.

The will is then filed with the Central Register of Wills (Centraal Testamentenregister), and you will be assured of its recognition and validity in the Netherlands.

If you want to make a will in the Netherlands and decide who is going to inherit your estate and other possessions you can do so only in the presence of a Dutch notary.

You can disinherit your child but, in the Netherlands, he/she is always entitled to a legitieme portie (forced share) amounting to half of the portion the child would have received in the absence of a will.

You can also disinherit your spouse and he/she is not entitled to a forced share. However, to alleviate the consequences of disinheritance, the law gives the longest living partner the right to a suitable level of provision; for example, a spouse may make use of the house as long as he/she is living.

You can also make a vruchtgebruiktestament (usufruct will): your spouse will receive the use and enjoyment of certain goods without owning them.

In the Netherlands, you can determine who your heirs are in a will and, in principle; the inheritance is divided according to this will.

If there is no will, the inheritance law will determine who the heirs to the person’s estate are. In general, if the deceased was a resident of the Netherlands, the Dutch inheritance laws are applicable, even if the deceased was a non-Dutch national.
As this is a more complicated matter, it is best to seek advice from a lawyer who is specialised in international law of inheritance.

Four categories of heirs are recognised in Dutch law: spouses or registered partners and children have priority entitlement to an equal share of the estate, followed by siblings, parents and nephews and nieces, and then by grandparents and great-grandparents, respectively. Relatives within each of these categories are only eligible to inherit property if there are no eligible relatives within the preceding category.

Each beneficiary can refuse the right of inheritance. This will likely be the case if there is a negative estate caused by debts.

It is also possible to accept an inheritance under benefit of inventory (beneficiair aanvaarden).  If you accept an inheritance under benefit of inventory you are not liable for any debts, not even if you have enough assets to settle them. But you cannot dispose of the estate until it is certain that all the debts have been settled.

If the spouse and children were the heirs, the spouse would receive all assets and debts of the deceased person’s estate, and the children would have claim on their inherited portion. When the children reach the legal age (18 years old), they would be entitled to handle their inheritance on their own, but as long as they are minors, their living parent would be the legal supervisor.

Partners living together without a registered partnership do not qualify for inheritance, even if they have signed a cohabitation contract in the presence of a civil law notary.