Renting out rooms

It is booming, renting out rooms in a house separately to young people, students, starters, expats and other people who need temporary accommodation. A proper solution for existing housing shortages. Renting out rooms to students is of course of all times in student cities, often by renting out part of one's own home. This is called renting out rooms. But it is also possible to rent out a house in parts, without living in the house yourself. This is often subject to more stringent requirements.

Legal

The legal basis for room rental is regulated in the current zoning plan, the Housing Act and the Housing Regulation based on it, the Building Decree of 2012 with technical rules and the rental law in Book 7 of the Civil Code for the use of the house or part thereof.

Municipalities can decide for themselves whether a so-called conversion permit is needed to divide a property into residential units to be rented out separately, with joint use of the kitchen, sanitary facilities and a living room.

Conversion permit

With a zoning plan and/or a conversion permit, the number of conversions in a village, town or neighborhood can be regulated by the municipality, because allowing multiple tenants in one home can cause the livability of the living environment to deteriorate. After all, there will be more adults in a flat, for example, compared to regular family compositions. This can cause residential nuisance.

In Amsterdam, for example, the rules for renting out rooms have been relaxed on a political social basis. This is possible on the basis of the Housing Act and Housing Regulation. A municipality can be very defensive, but can also choose not to ask for a conversion permit and thus allow room-mode rentals as flexibly as possible. In many municipalities converting the house to room-mode rental is permit-free and there are no restrictions in a zoning plan.

However, the national rules in the Building Decree 2012 always apply to constructional use such as soundproofing, fire safety and minimum surface area per residential unit!

Tenancy law also always applies, of course. Tenancy law has also recently been relaxed, with new possibilities for limiting rental protection for young people and students and new forms of rental contracts. This facilitates the flow in the housing market and is also more flexible for the landlord.

Legal guidance for letting rooms

Our clients seem to appreciate getting some guidance from us when starting to rent out rooms. We check the current ever-changing regulations, we look at the layout plan in the house together and advise on applying for a permit and making a lease for the house as a whole and/ or the rental of non-independent housing units in the house with common use of the rest of the house.

Ask for our help

We always quote a competitive fixed price, depending on the specific request for help.