Last October, my mother was on vacation in Curaçao. As always, we enjoyed doing fun activities together. During an Art & History Tour in Otrobanda, the guide pointed out a once-stately home that had since fallen into disrepair. The cause: a long-unsettled estate.
This problem is common across all the islands within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. When you visit various villages, you’ll often see properties stuck in these prolonged inheritance situations. In fact, since April 1, 2007, there has been a specific legal framework (Articles 3:200a to 3:200h of the Civil Code) to address long-unsettled estates — but I’ll delve into that topic another time.
In practice, I often encounter unsettled estates that fall outside this regulation. A frequent scenario involves ex-spouses who, after divorce, never fully divide their community of property. The furniture and cars get divided, but the division of the house is postponed — and postponement often leads to permanent inaction. As a result, the division remains stagnant, with no prospect of resolution. If it drags on too long, this burden eventually falls to the children, which is highly undesirable.
My advice: prevention is better than cure. When ex-partners opt for a collaborative divorce, I place special emphasis on dividing the joint assets and advise resolving this immediately. If a collaborative divorce isn’t possible, there are other legal avenues to ensure the community of property is divided. Doing nothing is simply not an option.
Do you want more information? Feel free to message me at info@rollingslegal.com
The photo was taken during the Art & History Tour in Otrobanda.
