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What is the best way to rent out your home?
You are thinking about renting out your home. Maybe because you are going to live together and want to keep 1 home for rental income (retirement investment). Or you may be looking for an investment property to buy again for rent. To best address this, note the following:

  1. Are you allowed to rent out?
  2. Which lease is the best way to rent out your property?
  3. Can I use a creative construction to avoid rent protection?
  4. Advice approach to renting out a property

Re 1: Are you allowed to rent out?
First, you must consider whether you are allowed to rent out.
Many mortgages stipulate that this can only be done with the bank’s permission. Check this out.

In all cases, look carefully at the property’s proof of ownership. This may contain building clauses or chain clauses (owner occupancy clause) that do not allow it.

With apartments, you frequently see that rentals are not allowed. Therefore, look carefully at the division deed (it is authoritative), the by-laws and the latest minutes. Nb: if the divisional deed states that renting out is not allowed, then you can forget it. In other cases, there is a chance that the VvE may not be able to legally enforce this on you.

If you plan to rent out your property through Airbnb, be sure to check the rules that apply in your municipality. In Haarlem and Amsterdam there is a limit to this. Nb: ‘short stay’ is becoming increasingly restricted. My advice is to stop buying property for “short stay” investments.

How much can you ask for rent?
We see many people making the mistake of offering an investment property for a liberalized rent, when there are too few rental points for this.

Calculate how many points the property has on the Rent Commission website. You need at least 142 points to be allowed to set your own rent.

Re 2: Which lease is the best way to rent out your property?
I work with the standard ROZ model lease agreement. It is ALWAYS strongly recommended that you have your lease drawn up by an experienced real estate agent or lawyer.

In ALL cases, I advise against drafting it yourself and/or terminating a lease without professional guidance. Rental law is quite complex in the Netherlands. By making a small mistake in the lease or in the notice, you may find yourself unwittingly stuck with a lease you don’t want.

A little more About the options available for rent:

Option 1: fixed-term lease < 24 months
The first option is to enter into a fixed-term lease of less than 24 months. You may enter into this one-time agreement with a tenant before it is indefinite. The maximum term is 24 months. So you can take out a lease for, say, 6 months, 10 months, 14 months or (max) 24 months. What you want. The tenant has a notice period of 1 month at all times. After the end of the term, the contract will be converted into an indefinite contract. If the landlord does not want this, he must send the tenant a letter giving notice to stop the tenancy. The tenant may do this no earlier than 3 months before the end of the agreement and no later than 1 month before the end of the agreement. If you really want to be watertight as a landlord, do this via a bailiff’s writ, so that no discussion can ever arise about not having received the notice.

Features:

  • Period is at the landlord’s discretion, as long as it is a maximum of 24 months.
  • You can Offer this only once per tenant.
  • Tenant can always cancel.
  • Landlord must give notice of the termination of the lease not too early, but not too late either If he wants to terminate the lease at the end of the term.

Option 2: indefinite lease
You can also directly choose to enter into an indefinite lease. In most cases we do not recommend this to our clients, because at a minimum you first want to know ‘what kind of meat you have in the barrel’. As a landlord, you are stuck with the tenant for an indefinite period of time. Only with legitimate legal reasons can you still get rid of the tenant and only with the permission of the judge. For example, if the tenant does not pay.

Features:

  • Tenant can always cancel.
  • Landlord can only terminate with valid reasons.
  • Tenant may go to the Rent Commission in the first 6 months if he finds that he has paying too much rent. After this, this will expire.

Option 3: a fixed-term rental agreement
Then there is the fixed-term contract longer than 24 months. The major difference with a fixed-term lease < 24 months is the following:

  • You will enter into this contract for a minimum of 24 months and 1 day. Therefore, in most cases, 25 months is used. It may be as long as you like.
  • Both tenant and landlord can NOT terminate in the interim.
  • Termination can be done by tenant at the end of the rental period.
  • For landlords, termination is more difficult. If the landlord wants to use this form of rental, it is legally most sensible to state reasons in advance in the lease on the basis of which the landlord may terminate if those reasons become applicable. For example, if the property is needed for personal use if the landlord needs it himself due to reduced mobility. Or because of return from abroad (see Diplomacy clause below).
  • When giving notice, the tenant does not have to give a reason. The landlord must WELL provide reasons why he is stopping the rent.
  • This form of contract allows for the inclusion of a “diplomatic clause” herein. This involves the landlord renting out the property because they are going abroad for x period of time. At the end of the lease term, the parties may by mutual agreement extend the agreement by an ‘Allonge’, each time for an x-period. This does not have to be 25 months. May also be, for example, by 1 year each time. But again this only applies to the diplomatic clause because the landlord must be able to start using the property again for his own use. So this form of contract is an excellent outcome if you are going abroad for at least 2 years.
  • Please note that if it is important to you as a landlord that you can terminate this form of a lease, we still recommend that you have the lease drafted watertight by a specialist lawyer. This is because even if you have everything properly described in the lease, the termination must actually be granted by the judge.

Re 3: Can I use a creative construction to avoid rent protection?
You see different “revolving door” constructions. Such as:

  • Agreement put in the name of the other partner.
  • Tenant any time again in another apartment.
  • Tenant 3 put in a bungalow park for months.
  • Tenant even before signing his lease, to have him sign a letter of termination.
  • And yet a whole bunch of void or voidable leases and constructions of landlords who started doing creative things themselves.

DON’T DO IT! If you go to trial, a judge will look at the explanation and underlying thought of the appointments. As a landlord, you’re going to get rock bottom. As a broker work I, at least, do not participate in this kind of construction. You have to abide by the law keep. What I can do for you as a (prospective) landlord is give you some Provide advice on your approach to hiring. See below.

Re 4: Advice approach to renting out a house
As a landlord, you cannot ultimately avoid rent protection. A lot of people underestimate the enormous power of these rent protections. Things usually go well because the tenant and landlord can work something out together, because the tenant doesn’t know or doesn’t want to exercise his rights, or doesn’t have enough resources to go to court. But it doesn’t always go well, and it frequently happens that a landlord is stuck for a long time or for life with a tenant he doesn’t want or with terms that are not favorable to him.

My advice:

  • Let your be assisted in ALL cases by an experienced real estate agent and/or rental law attorney if You make transactions or cancellations.
  • Make sure that there is a thorough scan and selection of tenants (incomes, contract, good tenant statement, etc.).
  • Monitor closely monitor the deadlines in the agreement (when does what expire and when should there be where to send a letter for termination, rent increase, etc.).
  • At terminations: pay close attention to the time period in which you terminate or give notice. Not too early and not late and give valid reasons (therefore: have a broker or lawyer do this for you).
  • Make sure that each lease in terms of its terms is drafted as if it were a contract for eternal. Suppose, however, that unwittingly you do remain forever attached to the definite-time contract, then, for example, it must be properly arranged that you can freely increase the rent annually.
  • Select tenants, who you know will also leave at some point. For example Because they are probably going to have children in a few years.
  • Do you want to avoid rent protection work with temporary leases and Therefore, terminate the lease at the end of the period. This does mean every 2 year new tenants.
  • Make sure that you meet all other regulations (fire safety, energy label, etc.)
  • Check your insurances. Your building insurance will likely be different if you have the house will be rented out.