Short-stay rentals and the VvE: what the deed of division allows

Whether an apartment owner may let a flat for short stays is decided in the first place by the splitsingsakte (deed of division), not by the municipality and not by the house rules. Where the deed designates the private units for use as a dwelling, or prohibits commercial exploitation, Dutch courts consistently hold that repeatedly letting the flat to changing occupants for short periods, at commercial rates and with services such as cleaning or linen, is not residential use. A Vereniging van Eigenaars (VvE, owners association) can then stop the letting, if necessary through preliminary relief proceedings with a penalty payment for each day of continued breach. A municipal permit does not change that: public law and the deed of division operate side by side.

What counts as short-stay

There is no single statutory definition of short-stay, but three categories are used consistently in practice and they carry different legal consequences. Holiday or tourist letting concerns very short periods, often nights or weeks, to changing guests, and is regulated by municipalities through the housing rules. Short-stay concerns temporary letting for a limited period, in practice roughly one to six months, to a defined group such as expats, students, interim professionals or employees on a project. Ordinary residential letting concerns durable occupation, with full tenant protection under Dutch tenancy law.

The distinction matters because short-stay sits between the two, and in the eyes of both the tax authorities and the courts it increasingly leans towards a commercial service rather than housing. That is not a value judgement about the tenants; it follows from how the letting is organised. A flat that is marketed continuously, furnished and equipped for immediate occupation, offered with cleaning, linen or utilities included, and occupied by a succession of different people, behaves like accommodation rather than like a home. The length of a single stay is only one factor, and rarely the decisive one.

The deed of division decides, not the house rules

An apartment building has a fixed hierarchy of rules, and knowing it settles most disputes before they start. At the top is the deed of division, a notarial deed registered in the public registers, which declares one of the model sets of division regulations applicable, most recently the 2017 model. Below it sits the huishoudelijk reglement (house rules), adopted by the meeting of owners. Below that sit the ordinary decisions of the meeting.

The rule that follows from this hierarchy is strict: house rules and meeting decisions may work out and specify what the deed already provides, but they cannot introduce a new restriction on the use of the private units. A prohibition on letting, or on a particular form of letting, restricts the use of the flat itself and therefore belongs in the deed of division. A VvE that adopts a ban on short-stay letting purely by majority decision in the house rules is on weak ground, and an owner who wants to contest such a decision can ask the kantonrechter (subdistrict court) to annul it. That application must be made within one month of the day on which the owner became aware of the decision, and the period is unforgiving.

The reverse is equally true. Where the deed does contain a residential designation or a prohibition on commercial exploitation, the VvE does not need a new decision to enforce it: the prohibition is already there and binds every owner and every occupant. Most model regulations also require an owner who allows someone else to use the flat to have that user sign a declaration that they will comply with the deed and the house rules, which gives the association a direct hold on the occupant as well.

How courts read use as a dwelling

The recurring question is what a designation such as designated for use as a dwelling actually means. The line in Dutch case law is that residential use implies a degree of durability: the occupant lives there, has their main residence there, and the use is not organised around a turnover of occupants. Courts do not stop at the wording of the tenancy agreement or at the number of days on the calendar; they look at how the flat is actually used.

The factors that recur in judgments are the frequency with which occupants change, the way the flat is marketed and to whom, whether additional services are supplied, whether the rent is set at a commercial level compared with ordinary letting in the area, and whether the owner is running the flat as part of a wider portfolio. The more the arrangement resembles the professional supply of accommodation, the more readily it is qualified as an exploitation of the flat rather than as living in it, and the more likely it is to be held incompatible with a residential designation and with a prohibition on commercial use.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a long stay does not automatically make the use residential: a chain of four-month lettings to successive expatriates can still be short-stay exploitation. Second, a single letting of the whole flat to one family that genuinely lives there is normally residential use, even if the term is fixed and limited. The question is the pattern, not the individual contract.

Municipal rules are a separate layer, not a substitute

Owners regularly assume that a municipal permit settles the matter. It does not. Municipalities regulate letting through public law: the Huisvestingswet 2014 and the local housing by-law, which can require a permit for withdrawing a dwelling from the housing stock, for converting it into rooms or for holiday letting, and which in the larger cities impose registration numbers and night limits on tourist letting. The omgevingsplan (the municipal environment plan that replaced the zoning plan) may separately prohibit using a dwelling for accommodation. Enforcement there runs through administrative orders and penalty payments imposed by the municipality.

The VvE, by contrast, acts under private law, on the basis of the deed of division. The two systems apply independently and cumulatively. An owner may therefore hold every permit the municipality requires and still be ordered by the civil court, at the request of the association, to stop letting and to pay the contractual penalty. The reverse also happens: a deed that permits letting does not help an owner who has no municipal permit.

Two developments have tightened the public-law layer further. Since 1 January 2026 the supply of accommodation is taxed at the general rate of VAT instead of the reduced rate, which raises the cost of short-stay letting and, more importantly for these disputes, confirms in tax terms that it is treated as a commercial service rather than as housing. And from 20 May 2026 the European regulation on data collection and sharing for short-term rental services applies: where a registration scheme exists, the registration number must be shown in the listing, and the platforms must verify it and share data on hosts and bookings with the authorities. Letting that is not compliant becomes considerably more visible, both to the municipality and to the association.

How a VvE enforces a prohibition

Enforcement follows a sequence, and associations that skip a step usually pay for it in costs. It starts with a written warning that identifies the provision of the deed or the regulations, describes the conduct and sets a deadline. If the letting continues, the association can impose the contractual penalty, provided the penalty is properly based on a prohibition that already exists in the deed or the model regulations and the procedure in the regulations has been followed. Courts examine both the basis and the proportionality of such fines, and they can moderate a penalty that is manifestly excessive.

Where the letting continues regardless, preliminary relief proceedings before the voorzieningenrechter (judge in interim relief proceedings) are the usual route. The association can obtain an order to stop the letting, reinforced by a penalty payment for each day or each breach, within weeks. In serious and persistent cases, most sets of division regulations allow the meeting, after a written warning, to deny the owner or the occupant further use of the private unit, a far-reaching measure that the courts review closely. The association can also claim its costs and, where the letting has caused damage to common parts, compensation for that damage.

The association must act consistently. Tolerating short-stay letting by three owners for years and then acting against the fourth weakens the case, because a decision that treats comparable cases differently can be attacked as contrary to the requirements of reasonableness and fairness. A VvE that wants to enforce should first put a clear policy to the meeting, apply it to everyone, and record it in the minutes. Where the association is the passive party rather than the enforcing one, the position of individual owners is set out in our article on what to do when a VvE fails its duties.

What the owner risks

The financial exposure is larger than the rental income for most owners. An injunction ends the letting immediately, which means the owner is exposed to the tenants who have to leave. Penalty payments accumulate per day and are enforceable. Costs orders in these proceedings can be substantial.

Insurance is the risk that is regularly overlooked. Building policies taken out by associations frequently exclude or limit cover for damage arising from commercial exploitation or from use other than as a dwelling, and some require notification of any change of use. If a fire or a water leak originates in a flat that was being let commercially in breach of the deed, the insurer may reduce or refuse cover, and the consequences are not limited to the owner concerned: the association and its other members can be left with a shortfall. The same applies to the owner personal liability position, and it is worth reviewing before, not after, the first letting. Our overview of who pays for damage in an apartment building explains how those losses are allocated.

Tenancy law adds a further layer that cuts in the owner direction as well as against it. A letting that is genuinely of a short duration by its nature falls outside the ordinary rules on tenant protection, but the exception is interpreted narrowly and depends on what the parties intended and how the flat is actually used. Since the reform of Dutch tenancy law on 1 July 2024, fixed-term tenancies for self-contained homes are in principle no longer possible, with limited statutory exceptions. An owner who assumes that a short-stay contract automatically ends on the agreed date, and who is wrong, ends up with a tenant who cannot easily be asked to leave and a VvE that objects to the letting at the same time. The obligations that rest on a landlord apply in full in the meantime.

What owners and associations should do

For an owner the sequence is short. Read the deed of division and the applicable model regulations before you commit to anything, including before you buy: the designation of the private units and any prohibition on commercial exploitation are decisive, and they are visible in the public registers. Check the house rules and the minutes of the last few meetings for the policy the association actually applies. Then check the municipal rules for the address, and only then look at the tax and tenancy consequences with the appropriate adviser. Our note on pitfalls in Dutch property law covers what else to verify before purchase.

For an association the priority is to get the documents in order rather than to improvise. If the deed is silent or ambiguous, consider having it amended, which requires a notarial deed and the majority the law prescribes, rather than trying to solve the problem through house rules that will not hold. Formulate an enforcement policy, apply it consistently, keep the insurance position under review, and record decisions clearly enough to be enforced. Where the relationship between owners has hardened but the building has to keep functioning, mediation often achieves more than a hearing.

Law and More advises owners associations and apartment owners on the deed of division, the model regulations, enforcement, penalty clauses and proceedings about short-stay letting. If you want to know whether short-stay is permitted in your building, or you are facing an injunction or a penalty, our real estate lawyers will assess the deed and your position and tell you what is realistic.

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