How do I cancel my rental contract?

You have found a new home or you are going to live together with your partner.

This means that you must terminate the old rental contract. But how should that actually be done and are there any rules for this?

The lease termination

The law states that you must terminate a rental contract by registered letter. Cancellations by e-mail are accepted in the judiciary. However, our advice is to at least send the rental notice by registered or regular mail. This prevents ambiguity. If you also send an email or WhatsApp, that is no problem.

It is also important which notice period you must adhere to. It happens that there is a notice period in the rental contract. That term is often incorrect. Landlords sometimes apply notice periods of two months or longer, while the law clearly determines which period applies. The rule is that the notice period is equal to one full payment term, but at least one month and at most three months. You can find this in art. 7:271 paragraph 5 sub a of the Dutch Civil Code. A few examples:

  • Do you pay the rent per month? The notice period is one month.
  • Do you pay the rent per week? The notice period is one month.
  • Do you pay the rent every two months? The notice period is two months.
  • Do you pay the rent every six months? The notice period is three months.
  • Do you pay the rent every six weeks? The notice period is six weeks.

Does your rental contract state a different notice period? Then the statutory notice period applies. This is because the statutory notice period is mandatory law. The landlord may not deviate from this. If he does so, the deviation is not valid. You can simply observe the statutory notice period.

 

Get the deposit back

After terminating the rental contract, you naturally want your deposit back as quickly as possible. There are no fixed rules for returning the deposit. The rental contract often states a period within which the landlord will repay the deposit. It is wise to also indicate in your rental notice that you would like to get the deposit back within a certain period. Please note that your landlord may have incurred costs that he may deduct from the deposit. You can read more about this here in our blog about additional costs.

You can use our cancellation letter to cancel your rental contract. You can find the letter here.

Recover service costs

Many tenants are still entitled to a refund of overpaid service costs, but often do nothing with this. Have you moved and are you curious about what Bumarang can do for you? You can always contact us without obligation. We are happy to assist you.

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