With the huurprijscheck you find out the maximum your home may legally cost. If you pay more, your rent can go down. I’m Jan Louwers LL.M., a legal specialist in rent reduction, and on this page I explain how the check works, where it often goes wrong, and what you can do with the result.
First, the most important thing: you don’t have to do the check yourself. My free huurprijscheck works it out for you in a few minutes, with the floor area, the WOZ value (the council’s property valuation) and the energy label added automatically. You see straight away whether your rent can go down and by how much a month.
The huurprijscheck is a calculation tool from the Huurcommissie, the Dutch rent tribunal. You enter the characteristics of your home, and the tool calculates how many points your home gets. That number of points comes with a legal maximum for the basic rent.
You get points for, among other things, the floor area, the WOZ value, the energy label, the kitchen, the bathroom and any outdoor space. The better and bigger the home, the more points, and the higher the rent may be.
If you pay more than that maximum, your rent is too high and the Huurcommissie can lower it. If you pay less, you’re fine.
Basic rent means: the rent without service charges, gas, water and electricity. Only that amount counts.
You don’t need DigiD and it costs nothing. Allow a few minutes. You enter your address and answer a few questions about your home; the huurprijscheck looks up the rest itself.
The huurprijscheck itself retrieves the floor area of your home, from the records of the Kadaster, the Dutch land registry.
It also retrieves the WOZ value itself, from the WOZ-waardeloket.
It retrieves the energy label from EP-online, and checks whether it counts. This is where the Huurcommissie’s tool often goes wrong, so read the next section carefully.
You enter the facilities in your home yourself: kitchen, bathroom, heating, outdoor space. That’s a few questions with pictures.
At the end you see straight away whether your rent can go down and by how much per month and per year. If it can, you send in your tenancy agreement and I handle the rest. You don’t need to download or keep anything.
Of all the elements, the energy label is the one where most mistakes creep in. And it carries a lot of weight: the difference between a label that counts and one that doesn’t can be dozens of points.
Why that can work in your favour. If your label doesn’t count, the year your home was built determines the points for energy performance. That usually yields fewer points, because the year of construction takes no account of insulation or other improvements made later. And fewer points means a lower maximum rent, so more room for a reduction. With older homes that makes a big difference.
The Huurcommissie’s tool doesn’t check this: it accepts any label you enter, including a label that doesn’t count legally. You then get too many points, the maximum rent comes out too high, and you conclude that your rent isn’t so bad after all. When in fact your case was strong. That difference can be hundreds of euros a month. My huurprijscheck does check it.
If you’d still rather do the check yourself at the Huurcommissie, this is the part where you need to look carefully.
Look up your address on ep-online.nl. There are three kinds, and two of them count.
Does it say Berekening volgens NTA 8800 (calculation according to NTA 8800)? Then your label counts.
Does it say EI geldig voor WWS (EI valid for WWS) with a number after it? Then your label counts too.
Does it only show a label class, without an EI and without a calculation method? Then you have a simplified label, and that doesn’t count for the points system, the woningwaarderingsstelsel or WWS. Not even if it says “geldig tot 2030” (valid until 2030).
Even a label of the right type can still be ruled out. Check these four things.
Is the label still valid? Look at Geldig tot (valid until). A label is valid for a maximum of ten years. If that date has passed, it no longer counts, whatever type it is.
Was the label assessment carried out before your contract began? Look at the opnamedatum (assessment date), not the registration date. If that assessment date is after the start date of your tenancy agreement, the label doesn’t count. Not even if its content is correct. What matters is the situation on the day your contract began, and at that point that label didn’t exist yet.
Is the floor area on the label correct? If it shows a floor area that differs greatly from your home, the label isn’t valid. That happens more often than you’d think, for example if the label was once drawn up for a larger or differently laid-out part of the building.
Was the label issued for your home? A label for the whole building or complex doesn’t count in the points system (WWS) for your home.
If your label is ruled out on any of these points, then the year of construction counts.
The WOZ value in subdivided buildings. If you live in a building that hasn’t been subdivided in the land registry, for example a converted town house with several flats, the WOZ value of the whole building isn’t simply that of your home. That needs a separate calculation.
The floor area. Not every square metre counts. Hallways and landings don’t count, for example, and with sloping roofs only the part where the ceiling is high enough counts. Measurements are taken internally, from wall to wall.
That needn’t be a problem, and it’s a reason to simply get started.
Fill in the huurprijscheck with your best estimate. The result is a first calculation: after that, your case continues on the basis of your tenancy agreement and the other documents, and in a procedure an inspector from the Huurcommissie values your home.
That way you have your result within a few minutes, and you know whether it makes sense to go further.
The whole process towards a lower rent is on a no-cure-no-pay basis. You pay afterwards, only once your landlord has agreed to my proposal or the Huurcommissie has ruled that your rent goes down.
This is the question most people get stuck on. The check says your rent is too high, and then what?
The result of a check is a calculation, not a decision. Your landlord doesn’t have to do anything with it. To actually get your rent down, you need your landlord’s agreement or a ruling from the Huurcommissie. There are two routes for that, and which one applies to you depends mainly on how long your tenancy agreement has been running.
Has your contract been running for less than six months? Then you can have the initial rent assessed. That’s the most favourable route. Your rent goes down with retroactive effect to the first day of your contract, and you get back the rent you overpaid.
Please note: those six months are a hard deadline. If you’re too late, this route is gone for good.
Has your contract been running for more than six months? Then it goes via a rent reduction proposal to your landlord. If they don’t respond or reject it, the Huurcommissie decides. If the Huurcommissie lowers your rent, the lower rent applies from the start date in your proposal, not for the period before it. You are entitled to a refund of what you overpaid from that date.
Exception: a short fixed-term contract from before 1 July 2024. Do you have a fixed-term tenancy agreement of no more than two years that was signed before 1 July 2024? Then the usual six-month deadline doesn’t apply. You can submit the request for as long as your contract runs, and after that for up to six months after the end date. If you move out earlier than the date in your contract, your moving-out date counts. For fixed-term contracts signed on or after 1 July 2024, this exception doesn’t exist.
You can read more about this in my article on reclaiming overpaid rent.
Both routes go through a procedure with requirements, deadlines and documents. That’s exactly what I take off your hands.
I handle everything with your landlord and, if needed, at the Huurcommissie. I choose the route that yields the most, draw up the documents and submit the request within the deadline. I handle the contact with your landlord, prepare for the property inspection and respond to the Huurcommissie’s inspection report. If there is a hearing, you are represented there; you don’t need to attend yourself. When a ruling comes, I set out for you exactly what you pay from then on and how you offset overpaid rent against your rent.
What’s left for you to do is deliberately little: sign an authorisation, send in your tenancy agreement and a few documents, have someone open the door for the inspector, and decide if a settlement proposal comes in. With my advice to go with it.
Beyond that, you hear from me how your case is going, even when nothing is happening for a while.
Want to see the whole process step by step? It’s on How it works.
Yes. The huurprijscheck on this site is free, even if it turns out your rent isn’t too high. The Huurcommissie’s calculation tool is also free, but it doesn’t check your energy label and you have to look up all the details yourself.
My huurprijscheck takes a few minutes: your address, a few questions about your home, and you have your result. With the Huurcommissie’s tool you look up all the details yourself, and that takes longer.
Yes. Whether your home falls in the private sector depends on the number of points and on when your tenancy agreement was entered into, not on what your contract says. If your tenancy agreement was entered into on or after 1 July 2024, your rent is regulated up to and including 186 points and a legal maximum applies, even if your home was let as private sector. If it was entered into earlier, the maximum applies if, according to the Huurcommissie, your home falls in the social sector (up to and including 143 points), and also with more points if your rent at the start of that agreement was not above the rent limit that applied at the time (the liberalisation limit).
It’s precisely around that threshold that there’s often a lot to gain. A home that comes out just below the threshold is sometimes let as private sector even though a maximum rent applies.
No. Applying for a rent reduction is not a valid reason to terminate your tenancy agreement. Your tenant protection stays in place as normal.
No. The Huurcommissie determines the maximum you may pay. If your rent is below that, nothing changes, and you pay me nothing either.
A procedure takes about three months on average; the Huurcommissie sets the pace. I keep you posted along the way.
Have you already done the Huurcommissie’s huurprijscheck? Then do my huurprijscheck as well: it takes a few minutes, and then you see straight away whether your case stands a good chance and what the next step is.
Free, with no obligation.