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I am planing for rent an accommodation in the Netherlands for one year. What are the rules to pay?

Should I pay in advance for the whole year (indeed if I had that money, I would not be working abroad)

I know about the extra one month commision, but how many months in advance usually I should pay? (one, two, more? )

If my contract is for one year (and that is the normal minimum i think) can I pay each month? (because i will be working and I can pay each month individually) but i can't pay the whole year in advance

Help and tips please, I am baby in these stuff and I afraid they cheat on me

user2059935
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    Usually, you pay one month in advance and have a deposit of 1-2 month. But one month deposit is most used. Most probably you found place via an agent, they usually charge one month fee for their service – Eugen Martynov Sep 20 '16 at 07:26
  • Yes, one year is typical, the only places I saw that did not have that were advertised as temporary things (owner abroad for a few months and intending to come back...) – Gala Sep 20 '16 at 09:02

2 Answers2

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The contract would usually specify that but I have never heard of any other arrangement than monthly payment. Before moving in, you pay the deposit (one month rent is typical, possibly more if you cannot present sufficient guarantees like a work contract), any fees/commission and the first month's rent. Then, before the beginning of each month, you pay the rent for the coming month.

What's specific about a one-year contract is that you can't stop it during that first year. You don't have to pay in advance but you will owe the landlord one year's worth of rent in any case. After the first year, everything goes on in the same way, but you have the right to stop the contract at any time (typically with one month notice).

Gala
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    How strict is the 1-year-must-be-paid requirement? Is it the law? – einpoklum Sep 21 '16 at 05:38
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    @einpoklum No, it's a contract clause but as far as I know fully legal and enforceable. Like every other contract, enforcing it might not be that easy for a landlord/lady but if you just leave without having agreed on something, I would expect you to at least lose your deposit and not get a positive recommendation (they do that...) Typically, it's also possible to suggest another tenant or to agree with the landlord/lady that they will look for one and you only pay until someone else moves in. – Gala Sep 22 '16 at 06:02
  • But typically, if one side of a contract for a period of time has valid reasons to want to extricate him/herself from the contract, he/she should be able to do this while compensating the other side only to a reasonable extent. So it might even be legally recognized that you have a right to get out before that one year under such conditions. But in practice what you said in the comment is important enough to be part of the answer I think. – einpoklum Sep 22 '16 at 09:46
  • @einpoklum Well, another way to look at it is that this one year clause is already something like that. You have a contract from which you can extricate yourself within a year (the landlord cannot evict you after the end of the one-year period or at any time after that without a good justification so the contract is not limited to one year per se) and the compensation is "only" a few months rent. I don't think the law forces letters to offer anything more favourable, even if you lose your job or some such. Will try again to find more info and update the answer accordingly. – Gala Sep 22 '16 at 11:25
  • A year is an incredibly long amount of time, and is hard to justify by the needs of the landlord. Something between a month to three months seems enough to be able to find another tenant. IMO. – einpoklum Feb 21 '17 at 22:26
  • ... ah, whaddaya know - the general terms bear out my intuition. I must be psychic :-) – einpoklum Feb 21 '17 at 22:35
  • @einpoklum That's a little smug given that your interpretation is a pile of nonsense. And yes, as a tenant, I don't like it either but the law is very much in favour of landlords compared to all the other countries I know. – Gala Feb 22 '17 at 20:03
  • It was a joke. At any rate, you mention the law. Can you link to anywhere in the law from which we can learn such a clause can be valid? Or - do you know of specific cases of tenants who challenged this clause, gave shorter notice, and authorities foreclosed on their assets to collect the amount due? – einpoklum Feb 22 '17 at 20:18
  • @einpoklum No, I don't and I wrote as much earlier. What I meant in my last comment is that the law is - in general - quite favorable to landlords. But your logic is faulty, there is no need for the law to explicitly allow it, the question is whether it forbids it. I get that you find that surprising (many things are when you move abroad) but you are looking for something that has no reason to exist. – Gala Feb 22 '17 at 20:43
  • In order for the landlord to enforce a clause in the contract the state would need to believe it is required to act. If the law does not address this issue, albeit generally, it does not seem likely (to me) that the landlord would be able to trigger such action. – einpoklum Feb 22 '17 at 21:05
  • @einpoklum That's not how contract law works, you are just making stuff up based on your own disbelief at this point. Fact is, such clauses are extremely common in the Netherlands. That in itself does not prove anything but why would so many landlords include them if they were forbidden or legally useless? Conversely, what actual evidence do you have they would not be enforceable? – Gala Feb 22 '17 at 21:59
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Gala Feb 22 '17 at 22:16
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IANADL (I am not a Dutch lawyer), but if we glance at the official terms applying to all rental contracts in the Netherlands (following from the law, translated into English; there's also the dutch original) - it is not decreed that the rent be paid on a monthly basis. So, theoretically, it could be weekly, or by-monthly, or yearly; and you could agree to pay at the beginning of the period, sometime into it, or at the end of it. Still, the contracts I had been offered were all "pay once per month at the beginning of the month".

About the "extra one month" - you should separate a realtor ("makelaar")'s commission and a deposit. The first kind you pay and forfeit, the second one you pay and get back when the contract is over - assuming you don't own the landlord for anything. The height of the deposit can, unfortunately, be higher than a month's rent even when you can present proof of employment: Mine was two months' rent, but I re-negotiated that after a year and brought it down to one month's rent.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, A point in Gala's otherwise useful answer appears to be incorrect: In section 19 of the general terms it says very clearly that a tenant can terminate the rental agreement by giving notice of somewhere between 1 and 3 months in advance; so at worst, no more than 3 months in advance can be required; and AFAICT this is relevant for the first year as well.

einpoklum
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  • Note the sentence " All liability for detrimental consequences of the use of the model is hereby expressly excluded by the ROZ." (the Dutch version says the same). This document does not apply to any (let alone all) rental contract. It's just a template landlords can use and it is as binding as the letter samples you can find all over the web or the "To rent" poster template found on the same website. – Gala Feb 22 '17 at 20:02
  • @Gala: This document is downloadable from lots and lots of rental agency and apartment search websites - at least in the Dutch version. As for its exact standing - like I said, I an not a Dutch lawyer, so I can't say whether all of its conditions are actually restatements of specific articles of law. But, again, it is extremely unlikely IMHO that a rental contract can bind the tenant for a year. To justify such a statement, I think you should link to some kind of legal or semi-legal reference. – einpoklum Feb 22 '17 at 20:15
  • That's not the point, it doesn't matter whether some clause or other is a restatement of the law. You seem to be under the impression that there must be a legally binding document spelling out the form of a rental agreement and listing all valid clauses but that's not how the law works, anywhere in the world (and not just in the Netherlands). Importantly, you are fundamentally mistaken on the nature of this document, it simply does not apply to all rental contracts in the Netherlands. And that should prompt you to be a little more careful before claiming that I am incorrect. – Gala Feb 22 '17 at 22:16