Rental Law

We assist real estate investors and managers, housing associations, healthcare facilities and other professional landlords and tenants in cases including:

• Customized advice on entering into lease agreements;
• legal proceedings between landlord and tenant;
• the tenant’s or landlord’s desired termination of the lease;
• a rent increase or rent reduction intended by the landlord or tenant, respectively;
• rent arrears;
• a substitution intended by tenant;
• disputes over defects in the leased property;
• disputes regarding the delivery of the leased property;
• sublease;
• nuisance issues, housing fraud and hemp nurseries by tenants;
• Drafting lease agreements retail space, commercial space or residential space.

Rent is the contract whereby one party, the landlord, binds himself to the other party, the tenant, by providing a property or part thereof for use and whereby the tenant binds himself to a consideration. That consideration may consist of paying a certain amount of money, but it need not.

Some exceptions also apply. For example, if it is a matter of making a plot of land available for agricultural purposes, this is not renting but leasing. This is subject to other, special rules.

There are certain rules in the law that apply to every lease. In general, these rules are of so-called regulatory law: parties may deviate from them in their agreement. There are also rules devised by the legislature that apply to specific leases and cannot be deviated from in the lease, or not to the detriment of the tenant. When drafting and reviewing lease agreements, it is therefore very important to determine what legal rules apply and whether they can be deviated from in the lease.

An important distinction is whether the lease relates to movable or immovable property. Movable property involves the lease of, for example, cars and machinery. Immovable property is permanently connected to the land. With these immovable property, a distinction is again made between built-up immovable property and unbuilt-up immovable property. In the case of built-up immovable property, there is a difference between leases that relate to business premises and those that relate to the rental of residential premises.

Especially in the rental of residential property, there are many rules in the law and there is no room to deviate from the legal provisions in the lease. This is because the legislator believes that the tenant deserves a (far-reaching) degree of protection from the landlord. Among other things, that protection means that the rent cannot simply be adjusted and the lease cannot simply be terminated by the landlord.

Within the lease of business premises, a distinction must again be made between the so-called medium-sized business premises. These are the leases relating to stores, supermarkets and catering establishments. What is important is that in each case there is an area accessible to the public. The regulations applicable to the lease of these medium-sized business premises are also highly regulated by the legislature. Deviating from the law is hardly possible and only if it is to the advantage of the tenant or if the judge has given prior permission for this deviation.

In addition to intermediate business premises, the law also recognizes the category of other business premises. Any business space that does not fall under the concept of medium-sized business space falls under this category. These include offices, garage boxes, factories and sports halls. For these premises, much more can be arranged and agreed upon in the lease itself. The legislature has felt that the parties leasing such space should have the freedom to define their own contractual relationship.