Dutch Civil Code

Book 1 Law of Persons and Family Law

Title 1.6 Rights and duties of spouses

Article 1:81 Duty to provide support and necessary means
Spouses owe each other fidelity, assistance and support. They have a duty to provide each other with what is necessary.

Article 1:82 Duty to care for and raise their children
Spouses have a duty towards each other to care for and raise the minor children belonging to their family and to bear the costs of such care and upbringing.

Article 1:83 Providing information about the administration (management) of property
Upon request, spouses shall provide each other information about de administration (management) exercised by them and about the state of their assets and liabilities.

Article 1:84 Household expenses
- 1. The costs of the household, including the costs of caring for and raising the children, are to be paid from the income which belongs to both spouses jointly (community income) and, as far as this income is insufficient, from the personal incomes belonging to each spouse separately in proportion thereof; as far as these incomes are insufficient, the costs of the household are to be paid from the community of property between the spouses and, as far as this community of property is insufficient, from the personal properties of each of the spouses in proportion thereof. The previous rules do not apply insofar as special circumstances oppose to their application.
- 2. In order to be able to actually pay the household expenses referred to in paragraph 1, each of the spouses has a duty towards the other to make the corresponding financial means available from the assets under his administration, unless special circumstances oppose to this.
- 3. It is possible to make an arrangement in derogation from paragraph 1 and 2 by written agreement.
- 4. Disputes between the spouses about the application of paragraph 1, 2 or 3 will be settled by the District Court upon the request of both spouses or of one of them.
- 5. Upon the request of both spouses or of one of them the District Court may, on the ground of a change of circumstances, modify an earlier given court order or an arrangement made by the spouses mutually.

Article 1:85 Joint and several liability of the spouses for household debts
Each spouse is, in addition and next to the other spouse, joint and several liable for the obligations entered into by the other spouse in the ordinary conduct of the family household, including obligations resulting from an employment agreement with a cleaning-person or similar employee entered into by this other spouse on behalf of the family household in the capacity as an employer.

Article 1:86 Lifting the liability for household debts
- 1. The District Court may, upon the request of one of the spouses, order that this spouse shall not be liable for obligations as referred to in the previous Article, that will be entered into by the other spouse as of that moment, provided that there are well-substantiated reasons for ordering so.
- 2. A court order given in conformity with the present Article may, in the event of a change of circumstances, be modified or removed in the same way as it was made.
- 3. A court order as meant in the present Article shall only have effect against third persons who were ignorant of its existence, if it has been registered in the Marriage Register as pointed out by Article 1:116 and at least fourteen these have passed since that registration.
- 4. The court order may determine that its existence has to published as well in one or more daily newspapers pointed out for this purpose by the court. Where the court has ordered such an additional publication, the court order shall in any event never have any harmful effect for third persons who were ignorant of its existence before the moment of that publication.

Article 1:87 Compensation when assets have shifted from one spouse's property to the other one's property
- 1. If a spouse, to the detriment of the property of the other spouse, acquires an asset which shall belong to his own property, or if a debt relating to one of the assets belonging to his own property is settled or paid off to the detriment of the property of the other spouse, then an obligation to pay compensation shall be imposed by law upon the first mentioned spouse.
- 2. The compensation amounts to a part of the value of the asset at the time that the compensation is paid. This part:
a. is, in case of an acquisition to the detriment of the other spouse’s property, proportional to the contribution derived from the latter’s property to the counter performance for that asset;
b. corresponds, in case of a settlement or redemption to the detriment of the other spouse’s property, to the ratio between the amount which is settled or paid off out of the other spouse’s property in regard to the value of the asset at the time of such settlement or redemption.
- 3. Furthermore, the following rules shall apply in regard of such compensation:
a. unless the spouse has used the property of the other spouse in the way as meant in paragraph 1 with that other spouse’s approval, the compensation shall amount to at least the nominal amount which has come to the detriment of the other spouse’s property;
b. in respect of assets which by their nature are intended to be consumed, the compensation shall always amount to the nominal amount which has come to the detriment of the other spouse’s property;
c. in respect of assets that meanwhile have been alienated (transferred) without any other assets have taken their place, instead of the value, meant in the preamble of paragraph 2, the value at the time of the alienation shall be decisive. For this purpose an alienation is equated with the advantage derived from the appointment as beneficiary of a sum insurance or of another stipulation (clause) on behalf of a third person that is or has become irrevocable.
- 4. Spouses may derogate by agreement from paragraph 1 up to and including 3. No compensation is indebted (owed) to the extent that, as a result of the acquisition, settlement or redemption to the detriment of the other spouse’s property, an obligation incumbent upon that other spouse is performed.
- 5. Where the compensation cannot be determined accurately on the basis of paragraph 1 up to and including 4, it shall be estimated.

Article 1:88 Juridical acts for which the approval of the other spouse is needed
- 1. A spouse needs the approval of the other spouse to perform the following juridical acts:
a. agreements with the purpose to alienate, encumber or give in use the residential space in which both spouses live together or in which the other spouse lives alone; agreements with the purpose to alienate, encumber or give in use things belonging to such a residential space or its household effects; juridical acts with the purpose to end the use of such a residential space or of the before meant things or household effects;
b. donations, with exception of the usual, not excessive ones;
c. agreements with the purpose to commit him, other than in the course of his professional practice or business, as surety or a joint and several co-debtor, to vouch for a third person or to provide security for a debt of a third person;
d. instalment purchase agreements, except when they relate to assets which apparently are intended to be used exclusively or mainly in the normal course of his professional practice or business;
- 2. The spouse does not need the other spouse's approval if he is obliged to perform the juridical act on the basis of the law or on the basis of a preceding juridical act for which this approval has been granted or was not required.
- 3. When the law has set a formal requirement for the juridical act to be performed, the approval of the other spouse must be granted in writing.
- 4. Contrary to paragraph 1, under point (b), no approval is needed for donations of which the performance is to be executed after the death of the spouse who has made the donation and of which the performance will not yet actually be executed during his life. However, where the donation consists of the appointment as beneficiary of a sums insurance (non-indemnity insurance) which has been accepted or may be accepted during the life of the insured person, the approval of the other spouse is needed.
- 5. No approval of the other spouse is needed for juridical acts as referred to in paragraph 1 under point (c) that have been performed by a Board Director of a public limited company or of a private limited company, provided that this Board Director - solely or together with his co-directors - holds the majority of the shares of this company and that the juridical act is performed in the normal course of business of that company.
- 6. If the other spouse due to his absence or because of another reason finds himself in a position in which it is impossible for him to determine his will or if he does not grant his approval, then the Subdistrict Court may be requested to give a substitute authorisation.

Article 1:89 Nullification of a voidable juridical act
- 1. A juridical act performed by a spouse in conflict with the previous Article, is voidable; only the other spouse may invoke this ground of voidability.
- 2. The previous paragraph does not apply to juridical acts performed with a counterparty who acted in good faith, unless it concerns donations.
- 3. The right of a spouse to invoke a ground of voidability in order to nullify a juridical act is not affected by the ending of the marriage nor by a legal separation if this ground had arisen prior to that. If the other spouse as a result becomes the debtor on account of this juridical act, Article 3:51 paragraph 3 only applies to him as long as the period of Article 3:52 paragraph 1 has not expired.
- 4. Contrary to Article 3:50 paragraph 1 and Article 3:51 paragraph 2, the extra-judicial declaration or the right of action for nullification does not need to be addressed to the spouse who has performed the voidable juridical act.
- 5. The spouse who has invoked a ground of voidability may also file all legal actions resulting from the nullification of the juridical act.

Article 1:90 Management (administration) of property during the marriage
- 1. A spouse is entitled to administer (excersise the management over) his own (i.e. personal) assets and, according to the rules of Article 1:97, the assets of the marital community of property.
- 2. The management (administration) of an asset by a spouse encloses the right to exercise all powers connected to that asset, including the power of disposition and exploitation, and the right to perform and to allow factual acts with regard to this asset, without prejudice to the right of the other spouse to enjoy and use that asset in accordance with the rights he has derived from the marital relationship.p.
- 3. Where a spouse, who is entitled to administer an asset, leaves the administration thereof to the other spouse, then the statutory provisions for service provision agreements apply to their relationship, taking into account the nature of the marital relationship and the nature of the involved assets.
- 4. The spouse who administers an asset, may join, as a co-party, any juridical act which has been performed by the other spouse with regard to that asset, in which case both spouses are jointly regarded as one party. The declaration to join the juridical act must be addressed to all persons who are a party to this juridical act. Article 3:56 applies accordingly. Where the juridical act is subject to specific formal requirements, these requirements apply as well to the declaration to join that juridical act. The spouse who joins the juridical act as a co-party may exclude himself from secondary rights and obligations as well as from already eligible (demandable) rights and obligations; he is considered to have engaged himself not any further than under observance of the rights previously granted to third persons.

Article 1:91 Court order assigning administration to the other spouse
- 1. If a spouse due to his absence or because of another reason finds himself in a position in which it is impossible for him to administer his personal assets or the assets of the marital community of property or if a spouse to a serious degree fails to administer the assets of the marital community of property, then the District Court may, upon the request of the other spouse, assign the administration of these assets or of a part thereof to the other spouse under exclusion of the first mentioned spouse. The court may in its assignment set further instructions for the administration and for the representation in the sense of paragraph 4.
- 2. Articles 1:86 paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 and 1:90 paragraph 3 apply accordingly.
- 3. The court shall call both spouses to court in order to be heard and, where the spouse who was mentioned first in paragraph 1 has appointed a representative, also this representative.
- 4. The spouse to whom the court has assigned the administration of assets is entitled to represent the spouse whose right of administration has been withdrawn in performing juridical acts other than those falling within the scope of the administration of these assets.

Article 1:92 Protection of third persons
- 1. Where it is not recognizable for a third person which of the spouses has the right of administration of a movable thing, not being registered property, or of a debt-claim to bearer, this third person may assume that the spouse who actually holds this thing or the negotiable instrument to bearer has the right of administration thereof.
- 2. The spouse who, on account of a juridical act of the other spouse, is disturbed in the administration of an asset by a third person who acted in good faith with this other spouse, loses his right to put a stop to this disturbance if he has not objected against it within a reasonable period after it has come to his knowledge. The right of this spouse to put a stop to such a disturbance ceases to exist also if the third person has subjected him to a reasonable period in which he must exercise his right and he has not made use of it within that period.
- 3. Where a debt-claim for compensation has arisen during the marriage as a result of a shift of property between the spouses mutually or between one of the spouses and a community of property existing between them, the fact that this debt-claim is not yet eligible (demandable) cannot be invoked against third persons.

Article 1:92a No applicability of Title 1.6 DCC to a legal separation
The present Title (Title 1.6) does not apply to legally separated spouses.