Echtscheiding: How Divorce Works in the Netherlands in 2026
A Dutch divorce (echtscheiding) is procedurally simple and full of deadlines. There is one ground, no fault question and no waiting period before a petition can be filed, and one spouse can bring it alone.
What makes it feel harder than it is are the three things the statute insists on: a petition signed by an advocaat, a parenting plan (ouderschapsplan) where there are minor children, and a registration step after the court order that most readers do not know exists and that has a deadline of its own.
This page follows that order, gives the honest answer to the question of divorcing without a lawyer, and sets out what the procedure costs in 2026.
Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Netherlands law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.
One ground, no fault, and no waiting period
Artikel 1:151 BW is one sentence long. A divorce is granted on the request of one of the spouses where the marriage is duurzaam ontwricht, which translates as irretrievably broken down. There is no list of causes, no requirement to have lived apart for a period and no conduct test.
Artikel 1:150 BW decides who can ask. A divorce between spouses who are not separated van tafel en bed is granted on the request of one of them or on their joint request, so a petition by one spouse alone is as valid a route as an agreed one.
On a joint petition artikel 1:154 lid 1 BW makes the shared view of the spouses the basis of the decision: the divorce is granted where the request rests on the judgement of both of them that the marriage has broken down. The court does not investigate that judgement. Under lid 2 either spouse may withdraw the joint request at any time up to the moment of the decision.
The one situation in which a Dutch divorce can genuinely be held up is artikel 1:153 BW. Where the divorce would cause an existing prospect of benefits payable to the other spouse after the petitioner dies to be lost or seriously reduced, and the other spouse defends the petition on that ground, the divorce cannot be granted until a provision has been made that is fair to both of them, and the court can set a term for that. Lid 2 disapplies the brake where the other spouse can reasonably be expected to make sufficient provision themselves, or where the breakdown of the marriage is predominantly that spouse's own fault.
Why an advocaat has to sign the petition
A divorce petition must be signed by an advocaat under artikel 278 lid 3 Rv, which exempts only cases filed with the kantonrechter or exempted by a special statute, and a divorce is neither.
The reasoning behind that runs through two articles rather than one, and it is worth following, because it also settles which court hears the case. A divorce is started by a verzoekschrift under the divorce title of the Wetboek van Burgerlijke Rechtsvordering (Rv), so the general rule on petitions in artikel 278 Rv applies to it.
Artikel 93 Rv then lists what the kantonrechter hears: money claims below a statutory threshold, claims of undetermined value where there are clear indications they fall below it, cases about an arbeidsovereenkomst, a CAO, an agentuur-, huur- or consumentenkoopovereenkomst or consumer credit whatever the sum involved, and other cases the law assigns. Family and maintenance appear in none of those categories.
Dutch family and maintenance cases are heard by the rechtbank, not by the kantonrechter, whatever the amount at stake, because artikel 93 Rv does not assign family or maintenance matters to the kantonrechter at any value. Territorial competence follows artikel 262 sub a Rv, which points to the court of the woonplaats of the petitioner, or of one of the joint petitioners, or of one of the interested parties named in the petition.
Two provisions in the divorce title itself follow from the same rule. Artikel 816 lid 1 Rv requires the document served on the other spouse to state that a defence or a request for extra time can only be made by an advocaat, and artikel 279 lid 3 Rv provides that in cases where the petition must be filed by an advocaat, the person summoned appears in person or by advocaat. So a spouse can turn up personally, but the written defence itself is an advocaat's document.
What scheiden zonder advocaat actually means
This is one of the most searched Dutch family law questions, and the flat answer that it is impossible is only correct for one of the three situations behind the query.
A marriage. There is no route to a divorce without an advocaat, and no online or self service alternative. What is possible is to share one: nothing requires two advocaten, and a couple filing a joint petition commonly uses a single advocaat or a scheidingsmediator who is an advocaat. That is settled practice rather than a rule of law, so it should be read as what usually happens rather than as what the statute provides.
The reason it feels lawyer-light is artikel 818 lid 1 Rv, which allows the hearing to be dispensed with altogether where there are no minor children who must be given the chance to express their views under artikel 809 Rv and, on a one-spouse petition, no defence was filed in time. Artikel 818 lid 2 Rv separately lets the court refer the spouses to a mediator, and lid 5 provides that the hearing takes place in a single sitting where possible.
A geregistreerd partnerschap. Here there is a genuine no-court route. Artikel 1:80c lid 1 sub c BW ends a registered partnership by mutual consent through the registration, by the registrar of the burgerlijke stand, of a dated declaration signed by both partners and by one or more advocaten or notarissen recording that they have concluded an agreement to end it.
Artikel 1:80c lid 3 BW shuts that route off where the partners exercise gezag, jointly or not, over one or more of their joint children, or hold joint gezag under artikel 1:253sa or 1:253t BW. Artikel 1:80d lid 1 BW says the agreement must at least record that the partnership is duurzaam ontwricht and that the partners want to end it, and lists maintenance, the home, the division of any gemeenschap and pension equalisation as matters it covers, expressly not on pain of nullity. Artikel 1:80d lid 3 BW gives the hard deadline: the declaration is only registered if it reaches the registrar within three months of the agreement being concluded.
An unregistered cohabitation. Nothing has to be dissolved, so there is no court, no advocaat and no registration. What survives the separation is child maintenance, gezag, contact (omgang) and whatever a cohabitation contract (samenlevingscontract) says, and those questions are the same whether or not the couple was ever registered.
The ouderschapsplan
Artikel 815 lid 2 Rv requires the petition to contain an ouderschapsplan signed by both spouses, covering their joint minor children whether or not they exercise gezag jointly, and the minor children over whom they hold joint gezag under artikel 1:253sa or 1:253t BW.
Artikel 815 lid 3 Rv fixes the contents. The plan must record how the spouses divide the care and upbringing tasks of artikel 1:247 BW or give shape to the right and duty of omgang in artikel 1:377a lid 1 BW, how they will inform and consult each other about important matters concerning the person and the property of the children, and the costs of the care and upbringing of the minor children.
That third item is why child maintenance is settled inside the divorce rather than after it. Both parents owe maintenance for their children under artikel 1:404 lid 1 BW, each according to their own draagkracht, and that duty continues until the child turns 21 under artikel 1:395a lid 1 BW. How the amount is worked out from the behoefte and draagkracht tables is set out on kinderalimentatie.
Two further leden matter in practice. Artikel 815 lid 4 Rv requires the petition to say which of the requested provisions are agreed and which are disputed and why, and how the children were involved in drawing up the plan; and artikel 815 lid 6 Rv provides that where the plan cannot reasonably be produced, other documents or another arrangement can be accepted, which is a matter for the court's judgement rather than an election by the spouses. Under artikel 815 lid 7 Rv the griffier sends a copy of the petition straight to the Raad voor de Kinderbescherming where provisions have to be made for minor children.
How the procedure runs
Artikel 815 lid 5 Rv lists the documents that go in with the petition: an extract of the marriage certificate, documents on the ground of jurisdiction, a birth certificate extract for every minor child of the spouses together or of one of them, the papers on any provisional orders, and, where the request follows a scheiding van tafel en bed, an authentic copy of that decision.
Where one spouse petitions alone, artikel 816 Rv requires a copy to be served on the other within fourteen days of filing. The document served names the date by which a verweerschrift or a request for extra time must be lodged, and that date is set with a term of at least six weeks from service, or at least three months where the other spouse has no known residence in the Netherlands.
Provisional orders for the duration of the proceedings are available under artikel 822 Rv, covering matters such as exclusive use of the marital home and the goods needed for daily life. Artikel 358 lid 2 Rv gives the petitioner and the interested parties who appeared three months to appeal a final beschikking, counted from the day of the decision, and artikel 820 Rv gives a spouse who did not appear at first instance three months running instead from personal service of the beschikking or from other service plus public notice.
The settlement agreement that most divorcing couples sign, the echtscheidingsconvenant, is a practice term rather than a statutory instrument, and each of its effects comes from a different provision. Artikel 1:158 BW lets the spouses agree spousal maintenance before or after the divorce order, artikel 1:159 BW allows a written non-variation clause, and artikel 819 Rv lets the court incorporate the arrangements the spouses have made, expressly including agreements on maintenance and on the costs of care and upbringing of a minor, wholly or partly into the beschikking. Where there are minor children the convenant does not replace the ouderschapsplan; both documents exist.
The order does not end the marriage, the registration does
A Dutch divorce takes effect only when the court order is entered in the registers van de burgerlijke stand under artikel 1:163 lid 1 BW, and under lid 3 the order loses its force if registration is not requested within six months of the day it became final.
Three consequences follow, and all three are reader critical. The court order alone leaves the couple married, so the marital property regime and the tax position continue until the registration. The six months run from the day the beschikking became final, in kracht van gewijsde, which is once the appeal term has expired or both spouses have filed an akte van berusting, not from the date the decision was given. And if the deadline passes, the beschikking loses its force and the whole procedure has to be run again.
The registration date is also the hinge for what follows. It is the day the spousal maintenance period starts to run, and artikel 1:165 BW lets the spouse who is living in the marital home ask the court, in the divorce order or later, to be allowed to carry on living there for six months after the registration against reasonable compensation.
What a Dutch divorce costs in 2026
The court fee is the predictable part. A divorce petition, and a standalone maintenance request, count as a request of undetermined value at the rechtbank, and the Wet griffierechten burgerlijke zaken sets the 2026 rates in its bijlage.
| Request of undetermined value, rechtbank, 2026 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Niet-natuurlijke personen | EUR 735 |
| Natuurlijke personen | EUR 341 |
| Onvermogenden | EUR 93 |
On a joint petition the griffierecht is charged once rather than twice, which is a real saving over two separate petitions. Artikel 2 Wgbz lets the amounts in the Act and its bijlage be changed each 1 January by ministerial regeling, so far as the consumentenprijsindex gives cause, so the figures above are the 2026 ones and nothing more.
The onvermogenden rate is not applied for separately. The griffier charges it where a toevoeging (a legal-aid grant) under the Wet op de rechtsbijstand has been granted or where an application for one has been filed, and if the toevoeging is later withdrawn or refused the difference is charged afterwards. So the toevoeging does two jobs at once: it subsidises the advocaat and it cuts the griffierecht from EUR 341 to EUR 93.
Personen- en familierecht has its own eigen bijdrage scale, and it is higher than the general one, so a figure copied from the standard table understates every band. The 2026 scale for family law work, on 2024 income as the reference year, is:
| Income, single person (EUR) | Eigen bijdrage (EUR) | Income, couple, cohabiting or single parent family (EUR) |
|---|---|---|
| up to 25,200 | 448 | up to 35,000 |
| 25,201 to 25,900 | 543 | 35,001 to 36,200 |
| 25,901 to 27,500 | 747 | 36,201 to 37,900 |
| 27,501 to 29,800 | 950 | 37,901 to 42,400 |
| 29,801 to 35,400 | 1,120 | 42,401 to 50,000 |
| above 35,400 | no toevoeging | above 50,000 |
A mediation toevoeging is much cheaper, at EUR 69 up to the lower income band and EUR 138 up to the upper one, which matters because a scheidingsmediator is the usual route in an agreed divorce. The Raad voor Rechtsbijstand applies a discount of EUR 69 on the eigen bijdrage, automatically since March 2020, so there is no need to visit Het Juridisch Loket first to obtain it.
Two conditions cut across all of it. Assets bar a toevoeging regardless of income, measured against the vermogensgrens for the reference year, which for the 2024 peiljaar is EUR 36,952 per person. And where the case yields the client a substantial amount, for instance out of the division of the marital property, the toevoeging can be withdrawn afterwards on a resultaatsbeoordeling and the work billed commercially instead, which is where a good number of family law toevoegingen come unstuck.
Echtscheiding, scheiding van tafel en bed, and ending a geregistreerd partnerschap
| Echtscheiding | Scheiding van tafel en bed | Geregistreerd partnerschap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ends the relationship in law | Yes | No, the marriage continues | Yes |
| Ground | duurzame ontwrichting, artikel 1:151 BW | the same ground and the same procedure, artikel 1:169 lid 1 BW | duurzame ontwrichting, by agreement or by the court |
| Court needed | Always | Always | Not where it is by mutual consent and the partners hold no gezag over a joint child |
| Who signs | an advocaat, artikel 278 lid 3 Rv | an advocaat | an advocaat or a notaris on the verklaring route, an advocaat on a court dissolution |
| Takes effect on | registration in the registers van de burgerlijke stand | registration in the huwelijksgoederenregister | registration of the verklaring or of the court decision |
| Deadline for that step | six months after the beschikking became final | six months after the beschikking became final, artikel 1:173 lid 3 BW | three months from the agreement on the verklaring route |
Scheiding van tafel en bed is rare and is chosen mainly for religious or pension reasons. It is a separation that leaves the marriage intact rather than a gentler form of divorce, and under artikel 1:169 lid 2 BW the duration of the marriage is counted up to the day it is registered, which is the day the maintenance period starts to run.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get a divorce in the Netherlands?
By a petition (verzoekschrift) to the rechtbank, signed by an advocaat, asking for an echtscheiding on the ground that the marriage is duurzaam ontwricht. The spouses can file jointly under artikel 1:150 BW, in which case artikel 1:154 lid 1 BW makes their shared view of the breakdown the basis of the decision, or one of them can file alone and serve the other. Where there are minor children an ouderschapsplan signed by both spouses goes with the petition. The marriage itself ends only when the resulting beschikking is entered in the registers van de burgerlijke stand.
Can you get divorced in the Netherlands without a lawyer?
Not a marriage, and the honest answer depends on what is being ended. A divorce petition must be signed by an advocaat under artikel 278 lid 3 Rv, which exempts only cases filed with the kantonrechter or exempted by a special statute, and a divorce is neither. What the couple can do is share one advocaat, or use a scheidingsmediator who is an advocaat, and file a joint petition; that is practice rather than a statutory rule, but nothing requires two advocaten. A geregistreerd partnerschap is different: artikel 1:80c lid 1 sub c BW ends it with no court at all through a declaration signed by the partners and by an advocaat or a notaris, unless the partners hold gezag over a joint child. An unregistered cohabitation needs no procedure at all, because there is nothing to dissolve, although the maintenance, gezag and omgang questions all remain.
Can one spouse refuse a Dutch divorce?
No. Artikel 1:150 BW allows a petition by one spouse alone, and artikel 1:151 BW asks only whether the marriage is duurzaam ontwricht, so there is no agreement requirement, no fault question and no separation period. The one real brake is artikel 1:153 BW, which stops the divorce being granted where it would destroy or seriously reduce an existing prospect of survivor benefits and the other spouse defends on that ground, until a provision fair to both is in place. Even then it delays the divorce rather than preventing it, and lid 2 sets out two situations in which it does not apply at all.
Is an ouderschapsplan compulsory in a Dutch divorce?
Where there are minor children, yes. Artikel 815 lid 2 Rv requires the petition to contain an ouderschapsplan signed by both spouses, and artikel 815 lid 3 Rv sets out what it must cover: how the care and upbringing tasks are divided or how omgang is shaped, how the parents will inform and consult each other on important matters, and the costs of the care and upbringing of the children. Artikel 815 lid 4 Rv also asks how the children were involved in drawing it up. It is not an absolute bar, because artikel 815 lid 6 Rv allows other documents or another arrangement where a plan cannot reasonably be produced, but that is a judgement for the court rather than an option for the spouses.
When is a Dutch divorce final?
A Dutch divorce takes effect only when the court order is entered in the registers van de burgerlijke stand under artikel 1:163 lid 1 BW, and under lid 3 the order loses its force if registration is not requested within six months of the day it became final. That is the deadline that catches people out, because it runs from the day the beschikking became final rather than from the date it was given, and a beschikking becomes final once the appeal term has run or both spouses have accepted it. Until the registration happens the couple is still married, whatever the order says. Artikel 1:165 BW separately lets the spouse living in the home ask to carry on doing so for six months after the registration, against reasonable compensation.
How much does a divorce cost in the Netherlands in 2026?
The court fee is fixed and the advocaat is not. For 2026 the griffierecht for a request of undetermined value at the rechtbank is EUR 341 for an individual and EUR 93 on the onvermogenden rate, and on a joint petition it is charged once rather than twice. Anyone granted a toevoeging under the Wet op de rechtsbijstand pays the onvermogenden rate as well as a subsidised eigen bijdrage, and for personen- en familierecht that contribution runs from EUR 448 to EUR 1,120 in 2026 depending on income, with a mediation toevoeging costing EUR 69 or EUR 138. Every one of these amounts is reset with effect from 1 January.
What is the difference between an echtscheiding and a scheiding van tafel en bed?
A scheiding van tafel en bed separates the spouses but leaves the marriage in place. Artikel 1:169 lid 1 BW gives it the same ground and the same procedure as a divorce, so an advocaat and the rechtbank are involved either way, but it takes effect on registration in the huwelijksgoederenregister rather than in the registers van de burgerlijke stand, and the duration of the marriage is counted up to that day. It is genuinely rare and is usually chosen for religious or pension reasons rather than as an easier alternative. Artikel 1:169 lid 3 BW adds that a maintenance duty arising from it ends when the marriage is later dissolved.
Sources and References
- Artikel 1:150 BW, echtscheiding op verzoek van één echtgenoot of op gemeenschappelijk verzoek(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:151 BW, duurzame ontwrichting als enige grond(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:153 BW, verweer wegens verlies van nabestaandenvoorzieningen(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:154 BW, echtscheiding op gemeenschappelijk verzoek en intrekking daarvan(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:163 BW, inschrijving in de registers van de burgerlijke stand en de termijn van zes maanden(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:165 BW, voortgezet gebruik van de woning gedurende zes maanden(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:173 BW, inschrijving van de scheiding van tafel en bed en de termijn van zes maanden(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:80c BW, beëindiging van het geregistreerd partnerschap(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 1:80d BW, de inhoud van de overeenkomst en de termijn van drie maanden(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 815 Rv, het verzoekschrift en het verplichte ouderschapsplan(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 816 Rv, betekening binnen veertien dagen en de verweertermijn(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 278 Rv, ondertekening van het verzoekschrift door een advocaat(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Artikel 93 Rv, de zaken die door de kantonrechter worden behandeld(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Wet griffierechten burgerlijke zaken, bijlage met de tarieven per 1 januari 2026(wetten.overheid.nl).gov
- Raad voor Rechtsbijstand, inkomen, vermogen en eigen bijdrage 2026(rvr.org).gov