Drawing up or amending marriage contracts and registered domestic partnership agreements

Under Dutch law, spouses have an automatic and general ‘community of property’. This means that from the day of the marriage, the assets and liabilities of both spouses become a single whole. This includes not only possessions acquired or debts contracted during the marriage, but also those which the spouses already had before the marriage.

It is possible to avoid a statutory community of property by entering into a marriage contract. This kind of contract is executed before a notary in a notarial instrument. There are many kinds of marriage contract, and a notary has an important advisory task in this respect. After the marriage contract has been drawn up, the notary arranges for it to be entered in the register of matrimonial property kept by the court. As it is public, anyone may inspect its contents. It is wise - and cheaper - to enter into a marriage contract before the marriage is solemnised (i.e. an ante-nuptial settlement), but such a contract may also be drawn up or amended in the course of the marriage (post-nuptial settlement). It is also wise for foreigners who move to or who have capital or assets in the Netherlands to seek the assistance of a notary, because the Dutch concept of community of property may also apply to them in certain circumstances.

Under Dutch law, two persons of the same sex or different sexes may have their relationship entered in the civil registers. Matrimonial property law also applies to ‘registered domestic partnerships’ of this kind, so that it is also possible for registered partners to derogate from the community of property system by notarial instrument. These are known as ‘registered partnership agreements’.