Dutch Civil Code

Book 1 Law of Persons and Family Law

Title 1.17 Maintenance

Section 1.17.1 General provisions

Article 1:392 Maintenance debtors (child support)
- 1. Obliged to provide maintenance on the basis of consanguinity or affinity are:
a. the parents;
b. the children;
c. the children-in-law, the parents-in-law and the stepparents.
- 2. This obligation only exists when the entitled person really is in need of maintenance, except where it concerns the maintenance obligation of parents and stepparents towards their minor children and stepchildren and towards their children as meant in Article 1:395a.
- 3. The persons mentioned in paragraph 1 are not obliged to provide maintenance insofar such maintenance may be obtained from the spouse or former spouse or from the registered partner or former registered partner in accordance with the provisions of Title 1.5a, Title 1.6, Title 1.9 or Title 1.10 of the Civil Code.

Article 1:393 [repealed on 01.04.1998]

Article 1:394 Maintenance obligation for begetter of a child or life companion of the mother
The begetter of a child that only has its mother as well as the man who, as life companion of the mother, has consented to an act which could have resulted in the conception of the child, are obliged, as if they were a parent, to provide for the costs of care and upbringing of that child or, after the child has reached the age of legal majority, to provide for the costs of maintenance and education in accordance with Articles 1:395a and 1:395b. Afterwards, this obligation only exists when the child is actually in need of such support.

Article 1:395 Maintenance obligation of a stepparent
Without prejudice to Article 395a, a stepparent is only during his marriage or registered partnership obliged to provide maintenance to the minor children of his spouse or registered partner and only insofar these children are actually a member of his family.

Article 1:395a Maintenance obligation towards children between the age of 18 and 21 years
- 1. Parents are obliged to provide for maintenance and education of their adult children who have not yet reached the age of 21 years.
- 2. A stepparent is only during his marriage or registered partnership obliged towards the adult children of his spouse or registered partner to provide for the costs referred to in the preceding paragraph, until these children have reached the age of 21 years, and only insofar these children are actually a member of his family.

Article 1:395b Conversion of a maintenance allowance on behalf of a minor child when he has reached legal majority
- 1. Where the court has determined an amount which a parent or stepparent or, where it concerns the application of Article 1:394, the begetter or the man who is equated with a parent pursuant to Article 1:394, has to pay for the care and upbringing of his minor child or stepchild and this obligation has been effective until that child has reached the age of legal majority, then this court order will, as from that moment on, be regarded as a court order for the determination of the amount payable for maintenance and education as meant in Article 1:395a.
- 2. The same applies if an amount has been determined under application of Chapter XIII of the Youth Care Act, which amount has to be paid by a parent or stepparent to the National Maintenance Collection Agency for the costs of the measures taken pursuant to Article 69, first paragraph, of that Act.

Article 1:396 Maintenance obligation to children-in-law and of parents-in-law
- 1. The obligation of children-in-law and parents-in-law to provide maintenance ceases to exist when the marriage of the child-in-law is dissolved.
- 2. This obligation does not exist towards a child-in-law who is legally separated from his spouse, nor towards a parent-in-law who is remarried.

Article 1:397 Determination of the amount for maintenance
- 1. In determining the amount that blood relatives and in-laws have to pay for maintenance by virtue of law, account is taken of the needs of the person entitled to maintenance and of the financial capacity of the person obliged to make such a payment.
- 2. When two or more blood relatives or in-laws are obliged to provide maintenance to the same person, then each of them is obliged to pay a part of the amount needed by the person entitled to maintenance. In determining this part account is taken of their financial capacity and of their relationship to the person entitled to maintenance.

Article 1:398 Providing maintenance by taking in the maintenance debtor
- 1. When a person, who is obliged to provide maintenance, is unable to pay the indebted sum of money, the District Court may order that he takes in the blood relative or in-law to whom he owes maintenance and provides him in his house with all necessities.
- 2. Parents are always entitled to request the court to allow them to acquit themselves of their maintenance obligation towards their adult children in the way as provided for by paragraph 1.

Article 1:399 Moderation of maintenance obligation
Without prejudice to what is indicated in the next Section with regard to the obligation to provide for costs of care and upbringing of minor children and stepchildren, the court may moderate the maintenance obligation of blood relatives or in-laws on the ground that the person entitled to maintenance has behaved himself in such a way that a continuation, in full or in part, of the provided maintenance reasonably cannot be expected.

Article 1:400 Ranking order of maintenance debtors
- 1. If a person is obliged to provide maintenance to two or more persons and his financial capacity is insufficient to fully provide for all, then his children and stepchildren under 21 years take precedence over all other persons entitled to maintenance, whereas his spouse, his former spouse, his registered partner, his former registered partner, his parents, his children and his stepchildren who have reached the age of 21 years take precedence over the children-in-law and parents-in-law.
- 2. Agreements to renounce a right to maintenance which is granted by law are null and void.

Article 1:401 Grounds for changing or revoking a maintenance obligation
- 1. A court order or an agreement on maintenance may be changed or revoked by a subsequent court order if the arrangements in it no longer meet the legal (statutory) standards as a result of a change of circumstances. The preceding sentence does not apply to a request for a change of the period which the court has determined on the basis of Article 1:157 or which is included in an agreement as referred to in Article 1:158.
- 2. The period that has been determined by the court on the basis of Article 1:158 paragraph 3, 5 or 6, second sentence, or that has been included in an agreement as referred to in Article 1:158, may be changed at the request of one of the former spouses if circumstances have changed so profoundly that to standards of reasonableness and fairness an unchanged continuation of this period cannot be expected from the applicant. An extension of this period is, however, not possible if the court has excluded this option by virtue of Article 1:157 paragraph 5. Article 1:157 paragraph 5, second and third sentence, applies accordingly to a request for an extension as meant in this paragraph.
- 3. Parties may agree in writing that paragraph 1, first sentence, shall apply to a request for a change of a period which is included in an agreement as referred to in Article 1:158.
- 4. A court order on maintenance may be changed or revoked in addition if it did not meet the legal (statutory) standards from the beginning because it was based on incorrect or incomplete information.
- 5. An agreement on maintenance may be changed or revoked additionally if it is entered into with gross disregard of legal (statutory) standards.

Article 1:402 Day on which the maintenance allowance is claimable and terms of payment
- 1. The court that determines, changes or revokes the amount of maintenance, shall determine also the date as from which this amount becomes due or as from which it is no longer indebted.
- 2. When determining the amount of maintenance the court also determines whether it has to be paid weekly, monthly or quarterly.
- 3. When already one or more instalments should have been paid or more than one instalment should have been repaid on the day on which the court order becomes enforceable, the court may also allow a payment of these sums in instalments.

Article 1:402a Annual indexation of the maintenance allowance
- 1. The amount of maintenance set by court order or by agreement will be changed each year by operation of law with a percentage to be determined by the Minister of Justice that corresponds to the difference in percentage between the index for wages as of September 30 of any year and the corresponding index in the previous year, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 3 and 4.
- 2. The changes take effect on January 1 following the date specified in paragraph 1. The decision in which the percentage is determined, is published in the Government Gazette.
- 3. By order in council will be defined what is understood by an index of wages.
- 4. The percentage by which the amount of maintenance is changed, may be rounded off to tenths of one percent. Where the second or following figure within the framework of these tenths of one percent is the figure 5, it shall be rounded off downwards.
- 5. A change of the amount of maintenance by operation of law may be excluded by court order or agreement for the entire duration of the maintenance obligation or for a specific period of time. In that event the court order or agreement may also provide that the amount of maintenance shall be changed periodically in another way than by operation of law and, where relevant, when and how it will be changed.
- 6. In the court order in which the second sentence of the preceding paragraph has been applied, and also after such a court order has been given, the court may regulate the dates on which the person obliged to make a payment must provide the person entitled to such a payment with information for the purpose of determining and changing the amount of maintenance. These court orders may be given and changed again afterwards upon the request of the maintenance creditor or maintenance debtor.
- 7. Where it has been excluded that the amount of maintenance will be changed annually by operation of law, this exclusion may be revoked by court order. As far as it concerns an exclusion with regard to which the second sentence of paragraph 5 has not been applied, the revocation may be made only in the situations referred to in Article 1:401.
- 8. A writ of execution for a maintenance payment shall be enforced with due observance of all changes that in the meantime have taken effect by operation of law or pursuant to the second sentence of paragraph 5 of the present Article.

Article 1:403 Peremptory time limit
No maintenance payment shall be due over any period longer ago than five years prior to the moment on which the application is filed.

Section 1.17.2 Provision for the costs of care and upbringing of minor children and stepchildren

Article 1:404 Maintenance obligation in proportion to financial capacity
- 1. Parents must, in proportion to their financial capacity, provide for the costs of care and upbringing of their minor children.
- 2. An equal obligation exists for a stepparent in the situation referred to in Article 1:395.

Article 1:405 [repealed on 01.04.1998]

Article 1:406 Determining the amount of an obligation to provide for care and upbringing of minor children
- 1. If a parent or stepparent does not or does not properly comply with his obligation to provide for the costs of care and upbringing of a minor child, then the other parent or the legal guardian of that child may request the District Court to determine the amount of the allowance which has to be paid for this purpose by such parent or stepparent on behalf of the minor child.
- 2. The District Court may already determine the amount meant in the previous paragraph in its court order in which it decides who shall exercise authority over the minor.

Article 1:406a Applicants
A request based on Article 1:394 may be filed for and on behalf of the minor child by a person who exercises authority over it. The parent or legal guardian of the child does not need the authorisation meant in Article 1:349 paragraph 1 and 2 to file such a request.

Article 1:406b [repealed on 01.01.2003]

Article 1:406c [repealed on 01.01.1997]

Article 1:406d [repealed on 01.01.1997]

Article 1:407 Change of the amount
Where the District Court has to decide who will exercise authority over a minor child after the dissolution of a marriage, following an earlier legal separation, it may at the same time, upon the request of one of the parents, change the amount which had to be paid periodically to provide for the costs of care and upbringing of that child on the basis of an earlier decision that concerned the exercise of authority over that child.

Article 1:408 The way in which an allowance for costs of care and upbringing must be paid
- 1. An allowance providing for the costs of care and upbringing or providing for the costs of maintenance and education, set by court order or by a decision on the basis of Article 822, first paragraph, under point (c), of the Code of Civil Procedure, is paid on behalf of the minor child to the parent who raises it and takes care for it or, respectively, to its legal guardian or to the child itself when it has reached the age of legal majority.
- 2. At the request of the person entitled to the allowance as meant in paragraph 1 or at the request of the person obliged to make the payment or at a joint request of such a maintenance debtor and maintenance creditor, the National Maintenance Collection Agency takes on the collection and recovery of the allowances. For this purpose the person entitled to the allowance hands over the writ of execution to the National Maintenance Collection Agency, with the result that the National Maintenance Collection Agency is authorised to make the recovery, if necessary by means of a foreclosure (sale under execution).
- 3. The National Maintenance Collection Agency may recover the collection charges and the costs of legal proceedings and of foreclosure from the maintenance debtor. The recovery of these costs takes place by increasing the amount referred to in paragraph 1 in accordance with the rules set for this purpose by Order in Council [increase of 10% is added to the arrear principal sum].
- 4. The National Maintenance Collection Agency shall only make the requested recovery when the person entitled to the allowance has shown that the maintenance debtor has failed at least once in the preceding six months to comply with his obligation to make a periodical payment. In these situations the recovery shall take place for amounts due from a date not exceeding six months prior to the moment on which the request was filed.
- 5. Before the costs meant in paragraph 3 may be recovered, the National Maintenance Collection Agency must notify the maintenance debtor by registered letter of his failure to pay a specific amount that is chargeable to him under the maintenance obligation, which amount will be increased with the before mentioned costs, and of the intention to recover these sums from him. Fourteen days after this registered letter has been sent out the National Maintenance Collection Agency may proceed to a debt recovery.
- 6. A debt recovery at the request of a person entitled to an allowance as meant in paragraph 1 shall only end when regularly payments have been made for at least half a year to the National Maintenance Collection Agency and there are no longer any amounts due as referred to in paragraph 4, second sentence. The half-year period shall be doubled each year if in the past another preceding period of recovery had started at the request of the person entitled to the allowance.
- 7. A recovery in effect at the moment on which the involved child reaches the age of legal majority shall be continued on behalf of the adult child, unless it has requested to stop the recovery.
- 8. The enforcement of a writ of execution for the costs of care and upbringing or for the costs of maintenance and education takes place with due observance of the increase referred to in paragraph 3.
- 9. Recoveries which have not resulted in an actual debt collection within ten years after the moment on which the minor has reached the age of 21 years, may be ended by the National Maintenance Collection Agency. The person entitled to the allowance shall be informed of this in writing.
- 10. A payment by the maintenance debtor firstly reduces the costs referred to in paragraph 3, then any interest due and finally the principal allowance itself and, if relevant, any accrued interest.
- 11. The National Maintenance Collection Agency makes sure that the sums paid out for the maintenance of minor children shall be paid to the persons entitled to it.
- 12. Article 1:243 paragraph 2, 3 and 4 apply accordingly.
- 13. The provisions of the present Article, except those of paragraph 1, 7 and 11, shall apply accordingly to a maintenance allowance that has been determined by court order on behalf of a spouse or registered partner, including a court order for an interim (provisional) maintenance allowance on behalf of a spouse or registered partner, on the understanding that recoveries may be ended by the National Maintenance Collection Agency if they have not resulted in an actual debt collection within ten years after the moment on which the request for recovery was filed at the Agency.