Shared custody law in Denmark (deleordning, delt bopæl): the rules in 2026

Danish law has no presumption of equal or shared care. Nothing in forældreansvarsloven, the Parental Responsibility Act, presumes or defaults to an equal division of time, and where parents disagree the decision is taken by Familieretshuset, an administrative authority, or in contested cases by the familieret, a division of the ordinary district court. Joint parental responsibility does continue automatically after a separation, but that is about who decides for the child, not where the child sleeps.

Two Danish rules surprise newcomers. Delt bopæl — shared residence — exists only as an agreement between the parents: no authority can impose it, and the provisions that once produced it without agreement were repealed with effect from 1 July 2020. And where contact is decided instead, ordered contact may not exceed the time the child spends with the residence parent, so an equal split is the ceiling a deciding authority can reach, not a starting point.

What Danish law actually says about shared care

The Act in force is forældreansvarsloven, consolidated as LBK nr 662 of 1 July 2026. In every matter it covers, the child's best interests and right to well-being and protection come first, and decisions are made on what is best for the child — with Familieretshuset and the familieret required to focus on protecting the child from violence, including witnessing it.

Parental responsibility survives the break-up. Fælles forældremyndighed continues even though the parents have ended cohabitation, separated or divorced, and can be ended only where there are grounds to assume they cannot cooperate about the child in the child's best interests. Significant decisions need agreement; the parent the child lives with decides the overall matters of daily life.

Residence names one parent. Where parents with joint responsibility disagree about which of them the child is to live with, a decision can be made — and the statutory wording is “hos hvem af dem”, which of the two. Section 17 gives no power to place the residence with both.

Delt bopæl is the parents' own instrument. Parents with joint responsibility may agree that the child has shared residence, and that agreement is the only route: the subsections that once produced it without agreement were repealed from 1 July 2020 by an act titled “Afskaffelse af tvungen delt bopæl” — the abolition of compulsory shared residence. The guidance states that it requires no particular content: no equal time, and no requirement that the parents live near each other. While it lasts, neither parent is the bopælsforælder, however the time actually falls, and no case about residence or contact can be started. It ends when one parent notifies the other, though shared residence survives until the parents agree or a decision is made. It is valid without being registered, but can be recorded in the CPR — where the child still has a single address.

Contact belongs to the child. The child's connection with both parents is preserved by giving the child a right to samvær with the parent it does not live with; that parent may ask for contact, and both share responsibility for the contact happening and for transport.

Sources: [1], [2], [3]

How a Danish decision on shared care is made

One open test, applied three times. Denmark has no statutory list of best-interests factors. Decisions are made on what is best for the child, and the same test is applied separately to parental responsibility, to residence and to contact. The child's own views are taken into account according to age and maturity — a voice, not a veto. Since 1 January 2025 the assessment must also include the child's right to both parents and, with it, obstruction of cooperation including parental alienation, with consequences where that is best for the child.

Contact is fixed case by case. Where the parents disagree about the extent and exercise of contact, a decision can be made, and contact is fixed on a concrete assessment of the child's circumstances. The Act names no schedule at all. Where a parent asks for contact half of the time — a deleordning — the guidance requires a concrete, individual assessment of whether that would be best for this child: that it works practically, so day care, school and friendships are not materially affected by which home the child is in, and that the parents can cooperate well enough to give the child continuity between two homes. It can be ordered as a trial arrangement.

The ceiling. Ordered contact may not be fixed at more than the time the child spends with the bopælsforælder. An equal division is therefore the maximum a deciding authority can order, and one parent remains the samværsforælder even on an equal split — unless the child has delt bopæl by agreement.

Who handles the case. Familieretshuset screens every request into a § 5 (simple), § 6 (less simple) or § 7 (complex) track; contested matters go to the familieret. There is no separate family court system.

Sources: [1], [3], [4], [7]

What Danish families actually do

Denmark counts households, not parenting time. In Danmarks Statistik's register table for 1 January 2026, 846,623 of 1,135,912 children aged 0–17 lived in a residence family with both parents, and 224,927 children had a registered samværsfamilie — a second, contact household. It is built from the CPR register, so a child in a week-on, week-off deleordning and a child who sees the other parent one weekend a month are counted identically. No official Danish statistic measures how many children are in a deleordning.

What families write down is a pattern. 7-7-ordning is the everyday Danish name for week-on, week-off — a contact arrangement, not a legal status. The alternating-weeks guide, the 50/50 schedule guide and the schedule examples lay out the usual variants, and a parenting plan template shows what an agreement names.

Money follows a separate test. Child maintenance is not in the Parental Responsibility Act. Each parent is separately obliged to maintain the child, and only a parent who does not fulfil that duty can be ordered to pay børnebidrag. Where the child stays roughly equally with each parent, the starting point is that both fulfil it, so no contribution is set — an assessment, not an automatic rule, weighing also who carries the larger fixed costs. Whether the child has delt bopæl is expressly irrelevant to it. Since 1 January 2026 Familieretshuset can also declare that a child stays at least 9 of 14 days with one holder of parental responsibility, for paying the child benefit — a benefit rule, not a custody rule.

Sources: [1], [3], [5], [6], [12]

The Danish words on your paperwork

Danish	What it means
forældremyndighed	Parental responsibility: care and decisions about the child's personal circumstances. Fælles forældremyndighed is the joint form, and continues after a separation.
bopæl / bopælsforælder	Which parent the child lives with, and that parent's status: they decide the overall matters of daily life, including where in the country the home is.
samvær / samværsforælder	Contact — the child's right to time with the parent it does not live with, and that parent. It covers overnights and holidays, so “visitation” misleads.
delt bopæl	The legal shared-residence status of § 18 a, by parental agreement only. Neither parent is then the residence parent, and no time split is required.
deleordning / 7-7-ordning	Everyday words, not statutory ones, for contact half of the time and for the week-on, week-off version of it.
Familieretshuset / familieretten	The administrative authority that screens and handles family cases, and the division of the district court that decides contested ones.

Each country names it differently; shared custody terms worldwide lines them up.

Sources: [1], [3], [4]

Recent changes to Danish custody law

• 1 July 2026 In force — consolidation only

  A new consolidated Parental Responsibility Act, LBK nr 662

  The Act was republished as LBK nr 662 of 1 July 2026, replacing the 2020 consolidation, now marked historic. It changes nothing of its own: it folds in eight amending acts from 2020 to 2025, and the numbering is unchanged.

  Official source: Retsinformation: LBK nr 662 af 01/07/2026 (PDF)

• 9 April 2026 Lapsed (bortfaldet) — no change in the law

  Resolution B 59 on the right to see both parents lapses

  A private resolution to strengthen children's right to see both parents after a divorce or the ending of cohabitation, tabled in December 2025, reached a committee report on 19 March 2026 and is recorded as lapsed at its final reading step. Nothing in the law changed.

  Official source: Folketinget open data: case 103891 (B 59, 2025-26)

• 1 January 2026 In force

  A 9-of-14-days declaration for the child benefit

  A new chapter lets Familieretshuset issue, on request and where the holders of parental responsibility agree or the other does not object, a declaration that the child stays at least 9 of 14 days with one of them, for paying the børne- og ungeydelse. A benefit rule, not a residence or contact rule.

  Official source: Retsinformation: lov nr. 1642 af 16/12/2025 (PDF)

• 21 January 2025 Withdrawn (tilbagetaget) — no change in the law

  Resolution B 48, that delt bopæl should be the norm, is withdrawn

  A private resolution proposing that shared residence be the norm for children of divorcing parents was tabled on 13 November 2024 and withdrawn at its first reading two months later. The Act's position — delt bopæl by agreement only — was unchanged.

  Official source: Folketinget open data: case 99953 (B 48, 2024-25)

• 1 January 2025 In force

  The child's right to both parents enters the best-interests test

  Lov nr. 1688 of 30 December 2024 added § 4, stk. 2: in assessing the child's best interests, Familieretshuset and the familieret must include the child's right to both parents and, with it, obstruction of cooperation including parental alienation. The same act extended the deadline for fast-track contact-preserving decisions to four weeks.

  Official source: Retsinformation: lov nr. 1688 af 30/12/2024 (PDF)

Frequently asked questions

Sources