Before signing, you should send your agreement to the Rental Team South Limburg, who will look for free to ensure everything is sensible and legal. You may need to wait as much as one working week to hear back from them. We understand that the whole rental procedure is fast-paced which there may not be sufficient time for agreement checks, so if this is not possible, then you need to check out your contract yourself. The document will likely be in Dutch, so non-Dutch speakers will desire to get it equated.

When checking your agreement, you must take notice of:

1. repaired or indefinite agreement

An arrangement for a set period consists of a final date. This means that the agreement ends instantly after the predetermined period, supplied that the proprietor informs the tenant in blogging about completion of the lease in good time (in between one and 3 months before the agreed end-date). Indefinite tenancy arrangements continue as long as the renter keeps paying rent and the property owner does not end the contract. These contracts typically feature a minimum term, before which the tenant might not terminate the lease.

2. Basic lease and added fees

The fundamental lease is expected to show the quality and area of the residential or commercial property. This rental price just consists of the actual lease. Service charges may be gas, water and electrical power, service expenses, internet and home insurance. When it concerns rent, it is necessary to comprehend the distinction in between basic lease and service charges. Check our section on rental rates to learn how the system works.

3. Rent boost

Rent increases are managed by law, and depend upon whether your lodging falls under the social or private housing sector. For social sector lodging, lease increases may be described in your rental contract, or can even be proposed by your proprietor a minimum of two months before the rent boost would take impact. You as a renter can decline the proposal, and your case may end up before the Rent Tribunal. As a basic rule, lease increases can happen as soon as every 12 months, and usually happen on July 1st. The optimum yearly rent boost portion for the social sector is identified by the federal government.

There are less rules using to personal sector lodging, which indicates that as an occupant you have less security. Rent can increase every 12 months, nevertheless, increases in between these 12 months are also possible if improvements have actually been made to the accommodation. The landlord is not required to notify you of any rent increases within a set amount of time. If the tenant does not desire to pay higher rent, the property owner may terminate the contract. Look out for provisions in your agreement suggesting a set annual lease boost (so-called indexation provisions). If no indexation stipulation is consisted of in the agreement, the landlord can only increase the lease by using the tenant a new contract stating the higher lease (amongst other things). If the tenant does not consent to the brand-new agreement for the same residential or commercial property, the property owner may then terminate the agreement.

4. Deposit amount and return

A deposit is generally needed, however any quantity worth more than two months of rent is typically thought about unreasonable. The agreement needs to plainly define how and when your deposit will be moved back to you.

Should you sign even if the agreement is not ideal?

If a contract seems extremely challenging on you as a tenant, or looks questionable, it may be a good concept to let it go. Even if you're running out of time to discover a place, it may trigger you more difficulty in the long-lasting to sign a bad contract than to try to find temporary accommodation while you put in the time to find something that's genuinely worth it.

If you discover a place that you truly like, the contract is acceptable, and the only concern is that the rent is a little steep (EUR750+), it can often be an excellent concept to sign, as there is an opportunity you might get some cash back by applying to the Huurteam Zuid-Limburg. You need to tread extremely thoroughly here, as there is a caveat: in scenarios like this, you always need to assume the worst and be prepared to pay this high lease in complete, in the occasion that the Huurteam Zuid-Limburg can not assist you declare any excess rent back. If you do sign an agreement you find costly, contact HTZL within 6 months to begin a treatment claiming back any excess rent.

You can find out more about procedures to claim back excess lease and company charges here.

Terminating an agreement

Terminating an agreement can be a challenging process with lots of guidelines surrounding it. In the Netherlands there are generally 2 kinds of rental contracts: a contract for a specified period and an agreement for an undefined duration. It is extremely useful to know which one you have, since it could make a distinction in how you must end your agreement. The default rule is that occupancy agreements need to be ended by offering notice. this indicates that you as an occupant send your landlord a formal letter informing them that you want to end the rental contract. You do not have to provide a reason for termination, and termination is in principle unilateral, which implies that you don't require the landlord to consent to it.

Contract for an undefined duration

In this type of agreement, a minimum duration (for example 12 months) is allowed. During this minimum period, you can not end your contract, unless the landlord concurs. The property owner can set conditions to concur to this, for instance, you may pay an extra month's rent or be needed to find a new person to take control of the agreement. After the minimum duration you can end the agreement with the right notice period.

The of this type of contract is that the property owner can not end your agreement easily. There needs to be legal factors.

Contract for a specified period

In this type of contract (frequently a 12-month agreement) there is a date the agreement begins and a date the agreement ends. This contract can not have a minimum duration and therefore you can end the agreement throughout the defined period if you provide appropriate notice.

The downside is that the landlord has a simple way to terminate your agreement on the end date of the specified duration. The property owner just requires to let you understand 1 to 3 months before the end date that the contract is going to end, they do not require legal factors to end the agreement on that date. If the property owner does not advise the renter of the end date and the tenant lives longer than the specified period, the contract automatically becomes an agreement for an undefined duration. You do not need a new agreement for that, the old contract instantly alters, and the rest of the contract stays legitimate.

If you wish to terminate your agreement as a tenant, typically the agreement lets you understand how to offer right notification. This can be a contact kind via a site of a company, or an email to the landlord/agency. If the contract does not mention how to notify, the proper method to end the contract is sending out a letter via registered post, stating that you want to end the rental arrangement per that date. You could also email the letter initially, but if you do not receive an action, you must still send out the letter through signed up post to be sure. We recommend that you send out both a letter and an e-mail. You can download a sample of an official letter offering notification here.
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You still need to deal with a correct notice duration when cancelling your lease. Normally, the notice equals the term of payment, which has been documented in the contract. For example, if you pay rent monthly, you should offer one month's notice . Unless in a different way stated in the rental agreement, the cancellation of the lease needs to be gotten by the proprietor before the first day of the month.

One FULL month (e.g. meaning you can not end the agreement on the 15th of April for the 16th of May. If you notify on the 15th of April, you can only end the contract by the 31st of May/1st of June).