Nathalie is 42, mother of two children, and is starting what she calls “the hardest year of my life”. She confronted her husband of eleven years. He denied everything. She no longer believes him.

It started with small things. A deviation in his calendar. Weekends “at the office” while the office was closed. A second phone that disappeared into a drawer the moment he came home. She is not naturally suspicious, her friends always tell her that. But this feels different.

After the confrontation came denial, then anger, then calm, on his part. Too much calm. She does not know what to believe anymore. And the not-knowing is devastating. She sleeps badly. She is exhausted around her children. She notices that she has already half let go of the relationship in her mind, but she does not know for certain whether that is justified.

Late at night she searches on her phone. “Private detective”, “adultery evidence”, “have partner followed”. She is startled by herself. This is not how she imagined living her life. But she also realises: if the divorce goes ahead, she has an interest in the truth. Division of assets, alimony, strategy, it all comes into play. And she does not want to be on the wrong side.

She finally contacts an investigation firm. She is composed on the phone but nearly breaks when she explains what is going on. The staff member listens, passes no judgment, and explains what is possible and what is not. She hangs up with the feeling: finally, someone helping her find out what is real. Certainty is not a luxury. It is a foundation.

What makes the difference

Doubt that keeps simmering undermines every conversation, every decision, every day. Objective clarity, whatever it reveals, is the beginning of recovery.

Financial context

The outcome of the investigation affects the division of assets, the alimony dispute and the strategic position in the divorce. The emotional value of certainty is priceless.

What we can do, legally, in a situation like this

SAJ Recherche is a licensed investigation agency, holding Ministry of Justice permit POB 8779. That licence is not a marketing badge. It is what makes the difference between a screenshot that opposing counsel can dismiss and a report that a Dutch court will accept as fact.

In a case like Nathalie’s, three things typically matter to a family-law attorney:

Surveillance evidence in public spaces, documented with timestamps and photographic material. Court-admissible when the investigation is proportional and lawful.
Evidence of cohabitation with a new partner. Under Article 1:160 of the Dutch Civil Code, the alimony obligation ends definitively once the alimony recipient cohabits with a new partner “as if married”. This one article can shift a divorce settlement by six or seven figures.
Digital investigation via public sources and OSINT, running alongside the fieldwork. Not accessing his phone. Not reading his email. Not planting a tracker. Those are illegal, and the evidence would be inadmissible anyway.

What we do not do is confront, retaliate or pressure. Our only job is to establish what is factually there, and to write it down in a form your attorney can use.

The four steps

Step 1. Confidential intake. A phone call or in-person conversation. No judgement, no pressure to proceed. We ask you to describe the pattern, we assess whether an investigation is proportional and lawful, and we tell you honestly what we can realistically deliver.

Step 2. Investigation plan and fixed quotation. We define the scope (which days, which locations, which methods), the expected duration, and the cost, in writing, up front. You decide whether to go ahead.

Step 3. Discreet fieldwork. Our investigators work at street level. They change position and vehicle throughout the observation. In our practice, the partner under investigation rarely notices. You receive progress updates and can adjust the scope at any point.

Step 4. A factual report. Timestamped, photographic where possible, and written in the register a court and a family-law attorney can work with. If we find nothing, the report says so, and that is also usable evidence in a proceeding.

If this reads like your situation and you want to understand the approach in more detail, the full service page is here: Partner investigation, Amsterdam.

Timeline, cost and payment

In most cases we can begin within 24 to 48 hours of the intake. In urgent situations, the same day. The hourly fieldwork rate starts at 125 euros excluding VAT; the total depends entirely on the scope of the investigation, which is why the quotation is fixed after intake, not before. Payment is 50 percent in advance, 50 percent on completion.

A full breakdown is on the private detective costs page, including a realistic range for a partner investigation of this kind.

Based abroad, with a partner in the Netherlands?

A meaningful share of our partner investigations are commissioned by clients who are not in the Netherlands, from the US, the UK, the Gulf and beyond. The intake, the agreement, payment and the final report can all be handled remotely and entirely in English. See our dedicated page for expat and international clients: Infidelity investigation Amsterdam.

What certainty made possible

We do not publish specifics of Nathalie’s outcome. What we can say is what a case like hers typically enables. A factual report gives an attorney the ground to negotiate from, instead of the ground to guess from. It shortens divorce proceedings. It settles the alimony question, in one direction or the other. And, quietly, it ends a form of exhaustion that people underestimate until they have lived through it: the exhaustion of not knowing.

That is why we do this work. Not to confirm the worst. To end the not-knowing.

Partner Investigation

The Situation

Our Approach

The Result