The limited community from 2018

Anyone who married on or after 1 January 2018 without a marital property agreement falls under the limited community of property of Article 1:94 of the Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek). Assets and debts from before the marriage stay private. What the spouses acquire during the marriage is in general joint. That applies to wages, to a house bought during the marriage, and to debts that arise during the marriage. In the file you note the date of the marriage first. Without that date you do not know which regime to take as the starting point. Ervazo does not choose the regime. The field stays empty until the date or the deed is there.

Inheritances and gifts stay private, even if they come in during the marriage. They become joint only if the giver has included an inclusion clause. That clause must stand in the deed. You do not infer it from the fact that the money was paid into a joint account. In the estate inventory of an estate you therefore do not label an inherited asset as belonging to the community merely because it was received during the marriage. Put private or joint only when the source supports that: the date of the marriage, the deed, or the clause. If the source is missing, the label is an open question and not a tick.

Debts from before the marriage likewise stay private. You do not put a student debt or a loan that already existed on the wedding day on the joint list merely because there is now one household. Debts that arise during the marriage are in general joint. For each debt note the start date if you know it, and the source of that date. If you do not know the start date, you leave the label open. A joint name on a giro collection form does not prove the date. The same applies to an asset someone already had: the name in which it stood before the marriage belongs with the private entry, with the document attached.

The limited community is the starting point, not a summary of each person's whole life. A marital property agreement can set the statute aside. A clause in a will can label an inheritance differently. Those documents prevail over the starting point, but only if they are in the file. The date of the marriage remains the source of the starting point. Ervazo does not apply Article 1:94 as a calculator and makes no deed. An open label stays open.