A Dutch car is registered to one person. There is no second line on the record for a partner, a spouse or a housemate, and no form that adds one later. People who have just opened a joint bank account here find that odd, and it quietly changes how a car bought together has to be handled when it is sold again.
The mechanics of moving a registration from one name to another sit in the RDW transfer guide. What follows is about the fact that the name is singular.
What the record has room for
You can read the shape of it off your own registration card (kentekencard). The RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, publishes the list of data printed on a registration certificate, and the person appears three times: C.1.1 for the name of the holder, C.1.2 for the initials, C.1.3 for the address of the holder. Singular throughout. There is one further field, C.4.c, carrying an indication of ownership.
The conditions attached to that person are singular too. The RDW’s English page on transferring a registration to a person’s name asks that the person is 18 or older, is registered in the Personal Records Database (BRP) with a residential or correspondence address in the Netherlands, and holds valid identification. One individual either meets that or does not.
A business can hold a registration. Some cannot. The RDW tells its recognised dealers that where the new holder is a sole trader, a professional partnership (maatschap) or a company still being formed, the car can only go into a private individual’s name. The register wants one legal person at a time, and it does not much care how many people paid.
Being registered and owning the thing are two separate facts
The register answers the question of who the car is registered to. It does not settle who owns it. The RDW demonstrates that itself: where a car belongs to a lease or finance company, the registration code (tenaamstellingscode) is posted to that company and not to the person driving it, which is the clearest possible sign that the register already lets holder and owner come apart.
So a car paid for out of two salaries can sit in one name without anybody having lost anything. Ownership of a jointly funded car is a matter between the two of you, governed by what you agreed and what you can show. The RDW will not record any of it, and it was never asked to.
That is worth saying plainly, because the usual worry is the wrong way round. The person whose name is on the card has not been handed the car. They have been handed the liabilities.
The single name carries the running costs
Road tax (motorrijtuigenbelasting) follows the register entry and nothing else. The Belastingdienst is explicit that it makes no difference whether the vehicle is used on the road or stands still on private ground. The bill goes to the holder.
Third-party insurance is compulsory in the same way. Under the Civil Liability Insurance Act, called the Wam in Dutch, the owner of a car must take out third-party insurance, and the obligation reaches a long-term user who is not the owner as well.
Enforcement works off the same single line. The RDW compares insurance and inspection data against the registration register and says every vehicle is checked at least once a year for both duties. Where a duty is unmet, the fine comes from the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB), addressed to the holder. Amounts are published on the RDW’s own page and are the same whoever actually drives.
One name on the record, then, means one person receiving the tax, the insurance duty, the fines and the speeding tickets. A couple sharing a car should decide which of them that is on purpose.
What a couple can usefully do about it
Write down what happened. A dated note between you, saying who put in what and what you intend if you separate or if one of you leaves the country, costs nothing and takes a few minutes. It is not a document the RDW will ever read. It is the document you will want if the two of you stop agreeing.
Keep the paperwork with the person named on the card. The registration card and all nine digits of the registration code belong together, and they belong with the holder. A code sitting in the other person’s drawer during a house move is how sales get postponed.
If you want the holder to change while you still both live here, there is no special procedure for couples. The car moves by an ordinary transfer, with the card and the code, exactly as it would to a stranger. Each transfer is a real event in the register and generates a proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijs) for the person leaving it behind.
Who has to take part when the car is sold
The person the car is registered to. That is who we deal with, and we will say so. A sale needs the holder in it, because the holder is who the register is going to release, and the proof of transfer comes back in that name.
The other partner does not need to be present, sign anything, or give the RDW permission. If they paid half, that is still true. It is also why the note in the drawer matters more than people expect, since the money from a sale arrives in one place.
Where the car is registered to an employer or a lease company, the sale goes through the company. That is a different conversation and the company sets the terms of it.
If the registered person has already left the country, the sale gets harder quickly, because a Dutch address is what most of the procedure assumes. Deal with the car while they are still here.
If you would rather hand the whole thing over, ask us for an offer. A number plate (kenteken) and the mileage are enough to start, the offer is free, and nothing binds you until you accept it.
Frequently asked questions
Can we add my partner to the registration?
No. The register holds one holder per vehicle, and there is no field to add a second. The RDW’s own list of the data on a registration certificate names the holder once.
We both paid for the car. Does the register prove who owns it?
No. The register records who the vehicle is registered to. The RDW itself posts the registration code to a lease or finance company where that company owns the car, which shows the two can differ.
Who gets the road tax bill and the fines?
The holder. The Belastingdienst bills road tax on the register entry whether the car is driven or standing on private ground, and the CJIB addresses fines to the registered person.
Does my partner have to agree before I sell a car in my name?
The RDW will not ask them. Whether you should ask them is a question about your own arrangement, and a jointly funded car usually means you should.
Can we put the car in a joint company name?
A company can be the holder if it is a legal entity. The RDW tells recognised dealers that a sole trader, a maatschap or a company still being formed cannot hold a registration, so in those cases the car goes into one person’s name.