What if you conclude that you and your partner Don’t Really Make Each Other Happy? What Practical Matters Should you know you’ve decided to get a divorce?
Ensure A Clear Divorce Notification
Shouting duration an argument that you want to get a divorce – that won sound very strange to many couples. But this is not a good, clear divorce notification, and it is necessary. A Divorce Notification is the personal message from one to the other that or shey hens a divorce.
The Lawyer or Mediator Will Question This, Explains Laura Kistemaker from Divorce Platform Uitelkaar.nl.
“A Lawyer Needs to know it’s really clear to both. Only then can he start the procedure and apply to the court for a divorce by mutual consent. How you deliver that message can determine how the process processes.”
Realize that little is truly yours
A decision will have to be made about your joints. If you married in Community of Property Before 2018, then very little is Truly Yours. Before 2018, Marrying in Community of Property was The Standard.
If you married after January 1, 2018 (and you harbor had any other agreements about your Marriage recorded by a notary), then you are married in ‘Limited Community of Property’. Private Possessions or Debts From Before the Marriage Remain Private and Do Not Fall Into The Community. Donations, Gifts, and inheritances Remain Private, Whether they are recurred before or duration the Marriage.
But that Doesn’t Apply to Mariaages That Were Entered Into in Community of Property Before 2018. You are Co-owner of Everything: Or debts, Investments, All Savings and Checking Accounts, Even If You Knew Nothing ABOUT Those Debts or That Wealth. There are exceptions, and thesis are called ‘attached goods’ in law.
Attached Goods
Earrings You Received From Your Sister Are Usualy Considered Attached, But, Explains Kistemaker, The Valuable Gold Earrings From An Inheritance From A Grandmother Who Left Them An Exclusion Clause Are Not. That is an inheritance and therefore belongs to both of you, even if it comes in the form of a piece of jewelry that your ex-Husband Will not Wear.
Another Example: The Old-Timer Or A Collection of Toy Trains. “That Those Things Were More His Hobby than that of the Ex, A Judge Understands, But That Doesn’t Matter. It has Value and Is An Investment Made in Community.” Emotionally, Things May fit with one of you, but that Doesn’t Always Make Theme ‘Attached’.
Emotions don’t help. Because some can say out of guilt: you take what you want, you take the savings account, I want to get rid of it. With that, you may not be doing your ex any favorors in the long term, sayes box maker.
“The Tax Authorities are also there. They can Levy Gift Tax because one ex has donated a Large Part of his, Therefore Your, Assets.” Refusing Spousal Support Can also Backfire: If You Later Have Welfare Benefits, The Municipality Can Cut Your Benefits. You have refused that alimony while it is part of your income. They can still recover it from your ex.
In 2023, 24,310 Marriages ended in Divorce, Accordination to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). That is about one-third of all maria’s that are concluded in the Netherlands.
Direct Costs of A Divorce
A Divorce Often HAS Financial CONSEQUESS, But The Divorce itself also Costs Money. The Divorce Procedure Falls Under Civil Law and You Are Required to Hire A Lawyer or Mediator. That costs money. If you are not entitled to a subsidy and the divorce is a long battle, it can run into the tens of thousands of Euros, Says Kistemaker.
In A Divorce, you and your ex-partner Pay the Costs for the Lawyer, for Court Fees for the Handling of the Divorce Case in Court, and Possible also for mediation. If you cannot pay the mediator or lawyer, The Government Can Reimbursse Part of the Costs for Legal Aid or Mediation.
That is income dependent, and the lawyer or mediator applies for that subsidy to the legal aid board. With that subsidy, you can be done with a few hundred euros, kistemaker knows. “If you only use mediation, it can also be done with a few tens. If you are just above that income limit, it is difficult. But the housing problem is really difficult. Try to find that, on a salary.”
Alimony Even Without Children and With Co-Parenting
Alimony is a legal maintenance obligation. If you get divorced and therefore do not have enough money to live on, the ex-partner must pay alimony. That is spousal support and therefore also applies if you have no children. The Spousal Support Amounts to a Maxim of Five Years, Altheghiegh There Are Many Exceptions to this Rule. If you Cannot Agree on the Amount, the Judge Will Determine the Amount.
If you have children Together, Both Parents Remain Responsible for the Costs of Care and Education Until the Children Are Eighteen Years Old. After that, Parents Must Pay the Costs of Living and Studying Until the Child Turns 21.
The parent who does not care for the children usually pays alimony for the children to the caring parent. But even if there is co-parenting, it may be that one party pays alimony, kistemaker explains, because there is a differentence in income.
The best interests of the child are always looked at, so if one of the parents can barely make ends meet, the other parent Will have to pay alimony. There are calculation tools that help with this, because this can be a complicated calculation.