Rent protection in brief
In the Netherlands, tenants are entitled to rent protection in a multitude of situations. Rent protection, in short, means that the landlord can no longer simply get the tenant out of the property. Rent protection occurs at least when:
-A fixed-term lease has been extended through an allonge/addendum or through a new lease
-If a fixed-term lease (of up to 24 months) has not been terminated by the landlord or has not been terminated in a timely manner
-A lease has been entered into for more than 24 months
Rent protection in residential property when a company is the tenant
It does not matter whether a property is rented by an individual or a company. For both, the tenant (whether an individual or a company) may be entitled or entitled to rent protection. So: a company renting a property has the same rights as a person renting a property.
Having DIRECT rent protection
You HAVE rent protection if you enter into a lease for longer than 24 months.
It does not matter then whether the tenant is an individual or a company.
GETTING rent protection
You MAY have rent protection if your fixed-term lease (with a max of 24 months) has been extended or not terminated in time.
Therefore, it does not matter whether the tenant is an individual or a company.
Note when renting to a business
Now it is important to understand something very well. In most cases, the company renting your property will sublet it to 1 of its employees. Thus, these employees are subtenants, and these employees may also receive rent protection. Suppose you rent your property through a fixed-term contract to a large international company. After 22 months, you neatly terminate the lease via registered mail. The company calls you a few days later that there is a problem. They sublet the property to their employee Jan Jansen. Jan Jansen received 2 fixed-term one-year leases from his main tenant (and also employer). Jan read a little too well into VK Realtors’ blogs and realized that after getting the2nd year lease, he has now accrued rent protection.
What is happening now is that the lease with the company has been neatly terminated by you and it is also ending. From the main tenant (the company) you are rid of. But the subtenant stays put. Legally, the subtenant becomes the principal tenant by operation of law when the incumbent principal tenant falls away.
So you thought you were smart by renting out your property for up to 2 years to a reputable company and setting up the lease in time (2 months before the end of the lease), and now you are still stuck with a tenant who does not want to leave.
Getting the subtenant out
The moment the main tenant steps out and the landlord now has to deal with a remaining sub-tenant, the landlord can (try to) claim in court within 6 months of this happening to terminate the tenancy the sub-tenant. This can be based on 1 of the following grounds (literal legal text):
- If from a financial point of view, the subtenant does not provide sufficient guarantee of proper fulfillment of the rent;
- If the sublease was entered into with the apparent intent of giving the subtenant the position of tenant;
- If in the given circumstances, according to the standards of reasonableness and fairness, also taking into account the contents of the leases relating to similar housing accommodation as well as the contents of the terminated lease between him and the tenant and the contents of the continued lease, he cannot be required to continue the lease with the other party;
- If the property is subject to Chapter 2 of the Housing Act 2014, and the subtenant does not submit a housing permit referred to in Article 8 of that Act.
Rent out property properly and safely?
We specialize in legally watertight property rentals in North Holland and South Holland. Call or email Floris van Kuijeren at 06-47470404 / floris@vkmakelaars.nl. Also be sure to take a look at our rental agent page!