The parental estate division

A death from before the reform of inheritance law in 2003, or a will from that time, can use old language. A parental estate division (ouderlijke boedelverdeling) is one such arrangement from the older law. You do not automatically apply Article 4:13 of the Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek) to it. That article is the statutory distribution of the newer law. The older document may have meant something else, in other words. In the file you note the year of death and the year of the will. If those fall before 2003, the first task is: read the deed and ask which regime it uses.

You take over the words in the deed. Parental estate division, the surviving spouse, children, and what the deed says about the allocation. You do not quietly translate those words into a money claim under Article 4:13. That translation is precisely what you must leave alone. Put a regime field with the text from the deed, or with the question which regime the deed uses if you cannot yet read that. A summary from an old family conversation is not the deed. Request the document from the notary who kept it, and note that you have requested it.

A will from after 2003, on a death from after 2003, you read on its own words. There the statutory distribution may have been switched off, or precisely not. That is a different question from the old estate division. Do not mix the years. A file with a date of death in 1998 stays with the document from that time, even if the administration takes place now. Today's calendar does not take the old law away. Ervazo does not set Article 4:13 as the default on an old file because the field would otherwise look empty.

Note the year of the deed beside the year of death before you choose an article. For every old deed ask which regime it uses, and write the answer in the words of the document. No answer means no application of Article 4:13. Today's statutory distribution is not a translation aid for a parental estate division. Ervazo makes no deed and does not choose the regime.