Dutch Civil Code

Book 1 Law of Persons and Family Law

Title 1.10. Legal separation and dissolution of the marriage after a legal separation

Section 1.10.1 Legal separation

Article 1:168 [repealed on 22.06.2001]

Article 1:169 Most rules for a divorce apply accordingly to a legal separation
- 1. A legal separation may be requested on the same ground and in the same way as a divorce.
- 2. Articles 1:151, 1:154 up to and including 1:159a apply accordingly to a legal separation, on the understanding that the periods meant in Article 1:157 paragraph 3 up to and including paragraph 6 start to run from the day on which the court order granting the legal separation has been registered in the Marital Property Register pointed out by Article 1:116 and that the duration of the marriage is calculated up to that day.
- 3. An obligation of a spouse to provide maintenance to the other spouse on account of a legal separation, ends upon the dissolution of the marriage.

Article 1:170 [repealed on 02.11.1995]

Article 1:171 [repealed on 02.11.1995]

Article 1:171a [repealed on 02.11.1995]

Article 1:172 [repealed on 02.11.1995]

Article 1:173 Moment on which a legal separation takes effect
- 1. A legal separation takes effect at the moment on which the court order is registered in the Marital Property Register pointed out by Article 1:116.
- 2. This registration is made upon the request of the spouses or of one of them.
- 3. If the request for registration is not made within six months after the day on which the court order in which the legal separation was granted has become final and binding, then this court order has lost its effect.

Article 1:174 Liability when the marital community of property has been damaged
- 1. If a marital community of property, existing between the spouses, has been damaged by one of the spouses because, after the request for a legal separation was filed or in the period of six months prior to that moment, this spouse has rashfully incurred debts or wasted community assets or has performed juridical acts as meant in Article 1:88 without the required approval or decision of the District Court, then this spouse is obliged to compensate the caused damage to the community of property after the court order granting the legal separation has been registered in the Marital Property Register.
- 2. A legal claim (right of action) based on the previous paragraph can no longer be filed when three years have passed since the registration of the court order in which the legal separation was decreed.

Article 1:175 Use of the house of the other spouse
- 1. A spouse living in a house which belongs exclusively or jointly to the other spouse or which may be used by this other spouse by virtue of a right of use, may request the court to grant him a right, enforceable against this other spouse, to keep living in that house and to keep making use of the things in it and of its household effects for a period of six months after the court order decreeing the legal separation has been registered in the Marital Property Register. The court may award such a request either in the court order in which the legal separation is decreed or in a later court order, provided that the spouse who made the request is living in the house at the moment of registration of the court order in which the legal separation is decreed.
- 2. Juridical acts performed by the other spouse in the six-months period meant in the previous paragraph without the approval of the spouse to whom the court has granted the right to keep living in the house as referred to in the preceding paragraph, cannot be invoked against this last spouse to his disadvantage.
- 3. If the spouse to whom the court has granted the right to keep living in the house refuses to give his approval to a juridical act or if he is incapable to state his will thereto, then the District Court which ruled in first instance on the request for a legal separation may order, upon the request of the other former spouse, that the previous paragraph remains inapplicable.

Article 1:176 Ending of a legal separation on account of an official reconciliation
- 1. When the spouses have come to a reconciliation they may end the legal separation by presenting an identical request to the keeper of the Marital Property Register pointed out by Article 1:116 in which they ask for a registration of the ending of their legal separation; the legal separation shall end at the moment on which the requested registration is made.
- 2. Through this registration all legal effects of their marriage are reactivated by operation of law as if there never had been a legal separation. However, the validity of juridical acts performed in the period between the legal separation and the registration of its ending as meant in the previous paragraph, shall be assessed to the time on which they were performed.

Article 1:177 [repealed on 01.06.2001]

Article 1:178 [repealed on 05.07.1982]

Section 1.10.2 Dissolution of a marriage after a legal separation

Article 1:179 Required duration of the legal separation
- 1. The dissolution of a marriage of spouses who are legally separated, is decreed by the District Court upon the application of one of the spouses provided that the legal separation has lasted for at least three years.
- 2. Upon the application of one of the spouses the three-year period may be shortened to one year or more if the other spouse continuously misbehaves himself in such a degree that the spouse who filed the application cannot be expected to continue their marriage.

Article 1:180 Provisional measures in connection with to be expected benefits (pension)
- 1. If the requested dissolution of the marriage would have the result that an existing expectancy of benefits, to be received by the other spouse in the event that the spouse who filed the application for a dissolution of the marriage would die firstly, would be lost or seriously diminished, and the other spouse objects for this reason against the dissolution of the marriage, then the application may not be awarded before provisional measures are taken in respect thereof which, in view of the circumstances, are fair to both spouses. The court may set a period for this purpose.
- 2. Paragraph 1 does not apply:
a. if it may reasonably be expected that the other spouse can make sufficient arrangements for that situation himself;
b. if the other spouse has continuously misbehaved himself in such a degree that the spouse who made the application for a dissolution of the marriage reasonably cannot be expected to provide any maintenance to that other spouse.

Article 1:181 Dissolution of the marriage upon a joint application of the spouses
A dissolution of the marriage of spouses who are legally separated, is decreed on their joint application.

Article 1:182 Most rules for a divorce apply also to a dissolution of a marriage after a legal separation
Articles 1:154 paragraph 2, and 1:157 up to and including 1:160 apply accordingly to the dissolution of a marriage after a legal separation, on the understanding that the periods meant in Article 157 paragraph 3 up to and including paragraph 6 are shortened by the time during which there existed an obligation of one of the spouses towards the other spouse to provide maintenance and that the duration of the marriage is calculated up to the day on which the court order decreeing the legal separation has been registered in the Marital Property Register pointed out in Article 1:116.

Article 1:183 Dissolution takes effect as of its registration in the register of marriages
- 1. The dissolution of the marriage takes effect from the day on which the court order dissolving the marriage has been registered in the Registers of Civil Status.
- 2. Articles 1:163 paragraph 2 and 3 and 1:166 apply accordingly.

Article 1:184 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:185 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:186 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:187 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:188 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:189 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:190 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:191 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:192 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:193 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:194 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:195 [repealed on 01.10.1971]

Article 1:196 [repealed on 01.10.1971]