Woonscheiding: pagsasama pagkatapos ng paghihiwalay at ang iyong legal na posisyon

Woonscheiding means that ex-partners keep living in one home after the relationship has ended. It is lawful, but while you are both registered at the same address the legal consequences continue: married partners remain tax and allowance partners until a divorce petition is filed and one of you has moved out in the Personal Records Database (BRP), and you both stay jointly and severally liable for the mortgage.

Nothing in Dutch law obliges either of you to leave. Only a court can give one partner exclusive use of the home. The way to keep a shared period manageable is a written agreement with a fixed end date.

What is woonscheiding, and what is it not?

Woonscheiding is a factual situation, not a legal status. It is not a legal separation (scheiding van tafel en bed) and it does not end your marriage, registered partnership or tax partnership.

If the home is jointly owned, each co-owner may use it under Article 3:169 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW), as long as that use is compatible with the rights of the other. If you are married, the rules on the marital home also protect the spouse who lives there. The result: two people with an equal right to the same front door.

Who may use the home while you share it?

Both of you may use the whole property unless you agree otherwise or a court decides otherwise. Co-owners can regulate use by agreement; if they cannot agree, either of them can ask the subdistrict court (kantonrechter) to set rules under Article 3:168 BW.

Once divorce proceedings are pending, a spouse can ask the divorce court for provisional measures (voorlopige voorzieningen). Under Article 822(1)(a) of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure (Rv) the court can give one spouse exclusive use of the marital home for the duration of the proceedings and order the other to leave. This is a petition procedure, not summary proceedings (kort geding). Our article on mga pansamantalang hakbang sa mga paglilitis sa diborsyo nagpapaliwanag kung paano ito gumagana.

The court needs a concrete reason, such as intimidation, aggression or a conflict that has become untenable, and it weighs the interests of children and alternative housing. After the divorce, the court can decide under Article 1:165 BW, at the request of the spouse living in the home, that this spouse may continue to use it for six months after registration of the divorce, against a reasonable fee.

Unmarried cohabitants have no provisional measures under Article 822 Rv. For them the route is an agreement or a request to the subdistrict court under Article 3:168 BW, or summary proceedings in urgent cases.

Who pays the mortgage and the other costs?

Towards the bank, you both remain jointly and severally liable (hoofdelijk aansprakelijk) for the whole loan. That follows from the loan agreement, so moving into another room changes nothing: if your ex-partner stops paying, the bank can claim the full amount from you.

Between yourselves, co-owners contribute to the costs of the joint property in proportion to their shares, under Article 3:172 BW. For most couples that means half each of the mortgage, the owner’s share of municipal charges, buildings insurance and major maintenance. Costs that depend on use, such as energy, water and internet, can be divided by actual use.

If one of you has exclusive use of the home, the other can claim a user fee (gebruiksvergoeding). Courts set it on reasonableness, not by formula, so fix the amount in your agreement. Mortgage interest deduction after separation is a tax question; ask a tax adviser early, because the answer can decide who stays.

How does a shared address affect allowances and tax partnership?

For spouses, tax partnership ends only when two conditions are met: a divorce or legal separation petition has been filed, and you are no longer registered at the same address in the BRP. That is Article 5a(4) of the General State Taxes Act (Algemene wet inzake rijksbelastingen, AWR), and the allowance rules follow it.

Unmarried cohabitants with a notarial cohabitation contract are partners under Article 5a(1)(b) AWR as long as they are registered at the same address. In both cases a private agreement to live separately does not change your status.

The consequence is that both incomes keep counting for healthcare allowance (zorgtoeslag), rent allowance (huurtoeslag) and the child-related budget (kindgebonden budget). If you claimed as a single person, the Belastingdienst will reclaim the difference. Check the current year’s thresholds on belastingdienst.nl rather than an old calculation.

When one of you moves, you must report the change of address to the new municipality no later than the fifth day after moving, under Article 2.39(2) of the Personal Records Database Act (Wet BRP). Registering at an address where you do not actually live is a false declaration and puts your allowances at risk.

Is spousal maintenance due while you share a home?

Maintenance depends on need and capacity to pay, assessed on the actual situation. While you share fixed housing costs, the need of the receiving spouse is usually lower, so many couples agree that maintenance starts on the day one of them moves out.

Living with your former spouse does not end a maintenance obligation. Under Article 1:160 BW it ends when the recipient remarries, registers a partnership or lives with another person as if married. If the recipient starts living with a new partner in the shared house, the paying spouse may invoke that rule, which is one more reason to regulate new partners in the agreement.

Who is liable for debts during the shared period?

If you are married in community of property, the community is dissolved on the day the divorce petition is filed, under Article 1:99(1)(b) BW. Debts your spouse incurs after that date are no longer community debts.

Until the divorce is registered, however, each spouse remains liable for debts the other enters into for the ordinary running of the household, under Article 1:85 BW. Close or convert joint accounts and credit facilities, and agree that neither of you takes on new obligations above a fixed amount, for example €500, without written consent.

Ano ang dapat na nilalaman ng kasunduan?

A standard divorce covenant does not cover a shared-living period, so it needs its own section or a separate agreement. These points are essential:

• an end date, and what happens if it is not met;
• the division of rooms and rules for shared spaces, visitors and new partners;
• the division of owner’s costs and use-related costs, and any user fee;
• whether maintenance is paid during the period and from which date;
• a ban on new joint obligations without written consent;
• how the house is sold or taken over, who sets the asking price and what happens if it does not sell.

Add an enforcement mechanism, such as a penalty per day of delay in vacating the home. If the agreement is laid down in a notarial deed, payment obligations such as that penalty can be enforced without first going to court. If one co-owner refuses to sell, either of you can claim division of the joint property at any time under Article 3:178 BW and ask the court to determine how the house is divided or sold. Our articles on the kasunduan sa pagsasaayos ng diborsyo at sa diborsyo at ang tahanan ng mag-asawa cover the next steps.

Ano ang dapat mong suriin bilang partner na nananatili sa bahay?

• Agree a user fee in writing if you get exclusive use of the home, so it cannot be claimed retroactively at a higher level.
• Keep paying your share of the mortgage: the bank can claim the full amount from either of you.
• Check whether you can take over the mortgage alone before you agree on a take-over price.
• Note that your allowances are calculated on both incomes until the other partner is registered elsewhere.
• Ask the court in time for continued use under Article 1:165 BW if you need the home after the divorce.

What should you check as the partner who plans to leave?

• Register your new address within five days after moving, so the tax partnership can end.
• Make sure the divorce petition has been filed: without it, spouses remain tax partners.
• Agree how your share of the mortgage is paid after you leave, and whether you receive a user fee.
• Close or freeze joint accounts and credit facilities.
• Fix the sale procedure and a deadline, with the right to demand division under Article 3:178 BW as the fallback.

What can we do for you with woonscheiding?

Ang aming abogado ng pamilya advise on the legal side of living together after a separation. More background is in our mga gabay sa batas pampamilya.

• We draft the woonscheiding agreement or the relevant section of your divorce covenant, with end date and enforcement clause.
• We calculate the division of mortgage and housing costs and propose a user fee.
• We request provisional measures under Article 822 Rv when sharing the home has become untenable.
• We review your registration and filing dates so the tax partnership ends when it should.
• We conduct proceedings for division or sale of the joint home under Article 3:178 BW.

Buod

• Woonscheiding is lawful, but it does not end joint mortgage liability or the right of each partner to use the home.
• For spouses, tax and allowance partnership ends only after a divorce petition and separate BRP registration (Article 5a(4) AWR).
• Exclusive use requires an agreement or a court decision, for spouses usually provisional measures under Article 822 Rv.
• Living with your ex does not end spousal maintenance; living with a new partner can (Article 1:160 BW).
• Record the shared period in writing, with an end date, cost division and an enforcement mechanism.

Mga madalas itanong