If you are looking for information about inheritance, you can search in the Estate Register (boedelregister). Every district court has its own Estate Register. This is a public register.

You can consult the register free of charge or request an excerpt. The determining factor is the deceased person’s last place of residence. The court that has jurisdiction over that place of residence has entered this information in the Estate Register.

How you can access the Estate Register and how you can request an excerpt from the Estate Register varies from one court to another. For more information (in Dutch), please select the court where you would like to consult the Estate Register:

• Rechtbank Amsterdam
• Rechtbank Den Haag
• Rechtbank Gelderland
• Rechtbank Limburg
• Rechtbank Midden-Nederland
• Rechtbank Noord-Holland

• Rechtbank Noord-Nederland
• Rechtbank Oost-Brabant
• Rechtbank Overijssel
• Rechtbank Rotterdam
• Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant
  

The Estate Register contains legal facts relating to opened successions. A succession ‘opens’ as soon as the testator passes away.

Legal facts include, for example:

• statements of heirs who have accepted or rejected the inheritance;
• details of the notary involved in the succession proceedings;
• details of the liquidator (a person appointed by the court to settle or liquidate the estate).

A description of the estate must be drawn up as part of the liquidation of the estate. This description gives an overview of the estate’s assets and liabilities. This will allow creditors to verify whether there is a positive balance and whether there are assets that can be sold. The Estate Register allows creditors to find out who they need to contact in order to inspect the inventory.

An overall description of the estate does not appear in the Estate Register. Moreover, no information relating to divorce is recorded.