Two-person marriage or registered partnership
Europe
Netherlands
Dutch adult relationship status remains strictly dyadic. Notarial cohabitation planning is useful, and active 2026 legislative work may create recognition for three or four legal parents, but it is not law yet.
Concept artwork
Notarial cohabitation agreements organise selected private rights
Two-parent cap today, with active work towards three- and four-parent recognition
One spouse, registered partner or exclusive unmarried partner
Marriage and registered partnership
The Civil Code provides that marriage is entered by two people and that a person may be married to only one other person at a time. Registered partnership is also dyadic. The Penal Code criminalises intentionally entering a double marriage.
There is no multi-person civil marriage or registered partnership status.
Cohabitation, property and inheritance
Government guidance recognises marriage, registered partnership, a notarial cohabitation agreement and informal cohabitation as distinct practical forms. A cohabitation agreement may address housing, living costs, accounts, children's costs, separation and survivorship.
Cohabitants have no automatic community of property. Spouses and registered partners are statutory heirs, while an informal cohabitant needs a will and carefully designed survivorship provisions. A multi-party agreement may organise private duties but does not reproduce group civil status.
Parentage and current reform
Current law remains capped at two legal parents and two holders of parental authority. Adoption is by two people jointly or one person under the statutory conditions.
A 2026 parliamentary motion calls for systems to be prepared for three or four parents and multi-parent legislation is under active development. It should be described as a live reform pathway, not present law.
Immigration and healthcare
The partner residence route covers one spouse, registered partner or unmarried partner. The unmarried route requires a lasting and exclusive relationship. There is no group-partner sponsorship route.
Healthcare representation uses a priority structure and allows a person appointed in writing. A written designation gives a multi-adult household more clarity than relying on competing claims to be a life partner.
Present building blocks
These are pathways to investigate with lawyers and other local specialists. They do not add up automatically to group marriage.
- Shared residence with a carefully drafted multi-party agreement
- Co-ownership and written cost, care, decision and exit arrangements
- Wills, survivorship provisions and pension or insurance nominations
- A written healthcare representative and advance statement
- Practical parenting agreements alongside current dyadic legal status
- Ongoing review of the active multi-parent reform programme
Reform gaps
These are the places where present law does not match a chosen multi-adult family.
- No group marriage or multi-person registered partnership
- Double-marriage offence provisions remain active
- Public-law inheritance, pension and immigration effects stay dyadic
- No current recognition of more than two legal parents or authority holders
- Private contracts cannot reproduce all incidents of marriage