Dutch Succession Law (Erfrecht): Wills, Estates and Probate

Dutch succession law is set out in Boek 4 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek, and artikel 4:1 BW leaves only two routes by which an estate can pass. Either the statutory order applies (erfopvolging bij versterf), or a will does (uiterste wilsbeschikking). A will can depart from the statutory order by appointing heirs or by disinheriting, and there is no third possibility.

The other thing to know at the outset is that the Netherlands has no probate court and no grant of probate. Nothing has to be proved to a judge before an estate can be dealt with. The work is spread across a notaris, the griffie of a rechtbank, sometimes the kantonrechter, and the Belastingdienst, and which of them is involved depends on what the heirs decide to do.

This section page maps that structure. Each of the four topics below has a page of its own; the point here is which rule sits where, and who decides what.

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.

Who inherits without a will

Artikel 4:10 lid 1 BW calls four groups of heirs in their own right, one after another. A later group is reached only where nobody in the earlier one takes.

Artikel 4:8 lid 1 BW equates a registered partner with a spouse throughout Boek 4 BW, so a geregistreerd partner is called under group a on the same footing. An unmarried cohabiting partner is not called at all, however long the couple had lived together and whatever cohabitation contract exists between them. That gap is the single most common reason a Dutch couple sees a notaris.

How the shares are then worked out is set out with the rest of the intestate order on the inheritance page. In outline, artikel 4:11 BW divides equally within a group subject to two corrections, and artikel 4:12 BW lets descendants step into the place of someone who has died, is unworthy, is disinherited or rejects, a mechanism called succession by substitution (plaatsvervulling).

Two outer limits belong here rather than there. Artikel 4:12 lid 3 BW provides that relatives further removed from the deceased than the sixth degree do not inherit, and where the four groups are exhausted artikel 4:189 BW gives the estate goods to the State under general title at the moment of death.

The statutory division (wettelijke verdeling) of artikel 4:13 BW applies where the deceased leaves a spouse and one or more children as heirs, unless the will excludes the whole afdeling. The spouse acquires the estate goods and bears the estate debts, and each child acquires a money claim against the spouse that is not payable until the spouse dies, is declared bankrupt or is admitted to the debt restructuring scheme. That division, the calculation of the claim and what a will can do to change it are set out in full on the Dutch inheritance page.

The shape of Boek 4 BW

Boek 4 BW runs to six titles, and knowing which one a question falls under is usually enough to find the article.

Two rules from titel 4 come up constantly and belong here in outline. Artikel 4:94 BW provides that a will can be made only by notarial deed or by a private deed deposited with a notaris, and artikel 4:97 BW carries the narrow exception, the codicil, a handwritten, dated and signed document limited to legacies of clothing, personal effects and specified jewellery, and of specified household contents and specified books. The formal requirements are set out in full on the wills page in this section.

From afdeling 3 of the same titel, only descendants of the deceased are forced heirs (legitimarissen) under artikel 4:63 lid 2 BW, so a spouse is not one, and the forced share (legitieme portie) is a claim in money rather than a share of the estate assets. The size of the claim, who can bring it and the deadline for doing so are set out on the forced share page.

Who decides what

This is where a reader most often ends up in the wrong place, because the Dutch system splits the work between a notary and two different judges rather than routing everything through one court.

The split between the two judges in the statutory winding up of an estate (vereffening) is worth stating precisely, because both are involved. The rechtbank makes the appointment, and it decides only after hearing or properly summoning the applicant and, so far as they exist and are known, the heirs, the boedelnotaris and the executeur (artikel 4:206 lid 1 BW). Everything after that runs past the kantonrechter.

Artikel 4:210 lid 1 BW obliges a vereffenaar to give the kantonrechter any information the kantonrechter wants and to follow the kantonrechter's directions in the vereffening. The kantonrechter also fixes the fee of a court-appointed vereffenaar before the distribution list is drawn up (artikel 4:206 lid 3 BW), and where the assets of an estate are of little value it may order a costless vereffening or lift the vereffening altogether (artikel 4:209 lid 1 BW).

An heir chooses between accepting outright (zuiver aanvaarden), accepting under benefit of inventory (beneficiair aanvaarden) and rejecting (verwerpen), and artikel 4:191 lid 1 BW requires the choice to be declared at the griffie of the rechtbank van het sterfhuis and entered in the boedelregister. Under artikel 4:190 lid 4 BW a choice once made is irrevocable and works back to the moment of death.

Accepting outright is not a neutral option among the three. Artikel 4:184 lid 2 sub a BW makes an heir who has accepted outright answerable for the estate debts out of their own assets, so the debts of the deceased can be met from what that heir already owned. Artikel 4:192 lid 1 BW can settle the choice through conduct alone, where an heir enters into agreements aimed at disposing of or encumbering estate assets or otherwise puts them beyond the reach of the creditors, with no form filed and nothing signed.

The Dutch inheritance page sets out each of the three choices, the conduct that amounts to accepting outright, the deadlines that make the choice by default, and the short-clock remedy in artikel 4:194a BW for a debt discovered afterwards.

An executeur is a further layer rather than a forum. Appointed by the will under artikel 4:142 lid 1 BW, the executeur has the task of administering the estate goods and paying the estate debts that fall due during that administration (artikel 4:144 lid 1 BW). There is no separate page for the office: the appointment sits in artikel 4:142 BW and the task in artikel 4:144 BW.

The verklaring van erfrecht

A verklaring van erfrecht is a notarial deed in which a notaris records one or more of the facts listed in artikel 4:188 lid 1 BW:

• who the heirs are and for which shares, and whether they have already accepted (sub a)
• whether the surviving spouse has a usufruct (vruchtgebruik) over estate property, and on what terms (sub b)
• whether the estate has been divided under artikel 4:13 BW (sub c)
• whether the administration has been given to executeurs, testamentary administrators (bewindvoerders) or appointed estate liquidators (vereffenaars), with what powers, and who those persons are (sub d and sub e)

It exists to give third parties certainty about who may act. A bank asked to release the accounts of a deceased customer, or a buyer of a house that formed part of an estate, generally needs it before dealing with anyone. Nothing in Boek 4 BW makes it compulsory in every estate, but in practice it is what unlocks the administration.

Producing one is investigative work rather than a formality. The notaris checks the Centraal Testamentenregister for a will, obtains it from the notaris holding it, interprets it where it is capable of more than one reading, traces the heirs through the registers and where necessary through municipalities or authorities abroad, verifies their identity and asks each of them to make the acceptance choice. Where heirs will not choose, the declaration is delayed.

The Centraal Testamentenregister (CTR) records only that a will exists, the date it was made and the notaris who holds it, never its contents, and a request about a person who has died is free of charge. A request about someone who is still alive is not closed off entirely: notaris.nl states that the person themselves, their bewindvoerder or curator, or in certain cases someone holding a notarial power of attorney, can ask. What the register holds and how a request is made are set out on the Dutch wills page.

The rest of this section

Four further topics sit under Dutch wills and estates, and each is a page in its own right rather than a paragraph here.

• Dutch inheritance tax (erfbelasting): who is taxed, the 2026 rates and exempt amounts, the 80% surcharge on descendants in the second or further degree, and a calculator.
• Inheritance (erfenis): the intestate order in full, the statutory division of artikel 4:13 BW, and the choice between accepting outright, accepting under benefit of inventory and rejecting.
• Wills (testament): capacity, the notarial deed requirement of artikel 4:94 BW, the codicil, revocation and registration in the Centraal Testamentenregister.
• The forced share (legitieme portie): who is a legitimaris, how the claim is calculated, and the period within which it has to be claimed.

The wider structure of Dutch law, including the codes and the courts referred to above, is set out on the Netherlands law overview.