Under Dutch law, a ''samenlevingscontract'', loosely translated as "

cohabitation agreement A cohabitation agreement is a form of legal agreement reached between a couple who have chosen to live together (whether they are heterosexual or homosexual). In some ways, such a couple may be treated like a married couple, such as when applyi ...

", is a written document containing agreements between two persons having a love-relationship and living together without being married. It can not be compared to marriage because Dutch law knows special laws for married couples and the High Court of The Netherlands did decide in 2019 that these laws can not be used for unmarried couples living together. A samenlevingscontract can govern the so-called property relationships between two or more persons who are cohabiting and other fields of law. It does not necessarily imply a marriage-like (or sexual) relationship exists, but the contract can include agreements about any children within the cohabitation arrangement. For a samenlevingscontract to be valid no special requirements have been set by Dutch law, except for the requirements that are in place for the validity of each contract. So neither does it have to be set up by a notarial deed (made by a Dutch civil-law notary) nor must the couple agree on certain points like taking care of each other financially. On the contrary, the contract must contain the agreements as they will be executed in day-to-day life, to be seen as valid by a judge.Cohabitation Agreement Canada
/ref> Since the 1980s the contract has been popular among two different groups in Dutch society: people who wanted to formalise their relationship, but did not want to marry, and people who wanted to marry but could not legally do so. With the introduction first of registered partnerships (1998) and later the broadening of marriage to include same-sex couples (2001) in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, the need for a cohabitation agreement for the latter has become less pronounced.

References

Law of the Netherlands Society of the Netherlands Contract law {{Europe-law-stub

See also

References