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

Whether you may let your apartment for short stays is decided first by the deed of division (splitsingsakte), not by the municipality and not by the house rules. If the deed designates the private units as dwellings or bans commercial use, courts regularly hold that letting the flat again and again to changing occupants, at commercial rates and with services such as cleaning or linen, is not residential use. The main exception: where the deed itself expressly allows use for short periods, the owners association (Vereniging van Eigenaars, VvE) cannot stop it. If short-stay is not allowed, the VvE can end the letting, if necessary through interim relief proceedings with a penalty payment for each day of continued breach. A municipal permit does not change this: public law and the deed of division apply side by side.

What counts as short-stay?

Short-stay is temporary letting for a limited period, in practice roughly one to six months, to a defined group. It sits between holiday letting and ordinary residential letting, and that position shapes how courts and the tax authorities treat it.

Dutch law has no single statutory definition of short-stay. In practice, three categories are used, and each has different legal consequences:

• Holiday or tourist letting: very short periods, often nights or weeks, to changing guests. Municipalities regulate this through their housing rules.
• Short-stay: temporary letting for roughly one to six months to a defined group, such as expats, students, interim professionals or employees on a project.
• Ordinary residential letting: durable occupation, with full tenant protection under Dutch tenancy law.

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

Who decides: the deed of division or the house rules?

The deed of division decides. House rules and meeting decisions can only work out what the deed already says; they cannot add a new restriction on how you use your own apartment.

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

The rule that follows from this hierarchy is strict. A ban on letting, or on one form of letting, restricts the use of the flat itself. It therefore belongs in the deed of division. A VvE that bans short-stay only by a majority decision in the house rules is on weak ground. As an owner, you can ask the subdistrict court (kantonrechter) to annul such a decision. Under article 5:130 paragraph 2 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW), you must do so within one month of the day you learned, or could have learned, of the decision. The Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) explained in its ruling of 21 June 2019 (ECLI:NL:HR:2019:1022) when that month starts. If it is not customary to circulate decisions, owners are expected to make enquiries within a week after the meeting. The period is strict, so do not wait for the minutes.

The reverse is also true. If the deed already contains a residential designation or a ban on commercial use, the VvE does not need a new decision to enforce it. The ban is already there and binds every owner and every occupant. Most model regulations also require an owner who lets someone else use the flat to have that user sign a declaration. In it, the user promises to comply with the deed and the house rules. That gives the association a direct hold on the occupant as well.

The deed can also work in the owner’s favour. In a ruling of 8 February 2022 (ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2022:336), the Amsterdam Court of Appeal held that short-term letting of apartments in Zandvoort was allowed. The deed designated them as dwellings, but it also expressly allowed owners to let others use the flat for periods of less than two months. The court looked only at what the public registers showed, not at internal documents of the association. This shows why the exact wording of your own deed matters more than any general rule.

How do courts decide whether use is residential?

Courts look at how the flat is actually used, not only at the contract or the number of nights. Residential use implies a degree of permanence; a steady turnover of occupants points to exploitation.

The recurring question is what a designation such as “intended for use as a dwelling” actually means. The line in Dutch case law is that living somewhere implies durability. The occupant lives there, has their main residence there, and the use is not organised around changing 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 Amsterdam Court of Appeal, for example, stressed the lack of lasting, future-oriented occupation in a ruling of 21 October 2025 (ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2025:2788). The deed there limited each flat to one family, and a rotating group of four unrelated students did not meet that test.

Factors that recur in judgments include:

• how often the occupants change;
• how the flat is marketed, and to whom;
• whether extra services are supplied, such as cleaning or linen;
• whether the rent is set at a commercial level compared with ordinary letting in the area;
• whether the owner runs the flat as part of a wider portfolio.

The more the arrangement looks like the professional supply of accommodation, the sooner a court treats it as exploiting the flat rather than living in it. It is then also more likely to conflict with a residential designation and with a ban 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 expats can still be short-stay exploitation. Second, letting the whole flat once to one family that genuinely lives there is normally residential use, even if the term is fixed and limited. The pattern counts, not the individual contract.

Does a municipal permit settle the matter?

No. Municipal rules are a separate layer of public law. They do not replace the private-law rules in the deed of division, and a permit does not protect you against the VvE.

Owners often assume that a municipal permit is enough. It is not. Municipalities regulate letting through public law: the Housing Act 2014 (Huisvestingswet 2014) and the local housing by-law. These can require a permit for taking a dwelling out of the housing stock, for converting it into rooms or for holiday letting. In the larger cities they also impose registration numbers and night limits on tourist letting. The environment plan (omgevingsplan), which replaced the zoning plan, may separately prohibit using a dwelling for accommodation. The municipality enforces these rules through administrative orders and penalty payments.

The VvE, by contrast, acts under private law, based on the deed of division. The two systems apply independently and at the same time. You may 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 allows letting does not help you if you have no municipal permit.

Two recent developments have tightened the public-law layer. Since 1 January 2026, accommodation (logies) is taxed at the general VAT rate of 21% instead of the reduced 9% rate. This raises the cost of short-stay letting. For these disputes, it also confirms in tax terms that such letting is treated as a commercial service rather than housing. And since 20 May 2026, EU Regulation 2024/1028 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. Platforms must check it and share data on hosts and bookings with the authorities. Letting that does not comply therefore becomes much more visible, to the municipality and to the association.

How does a VvE enforce a ban on short-stay?

In steps: a written warning, then the contractual penalty, then interim relief proceedings if needed. Associations that skip a step usually pay for it in legal costs.

Enforcement starts with a written warning. It names 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. That requires a ban that already exists in the deed or the model regulations, and the procedure in the regulations must have been followed. Courts examine both the basis and the proportionality of such penalties. Under article 6:94 BW, a court can reduce a penalty if fairness clearly requires it.

If the letting still continues, interim relief proceedings before the preliminary relief judge (voorzieningenrechter) are the usual route. Within weeks, the association can obtain an order to stop the letting, backed by a penalty payment for each day or each breach. 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 apartment. Courts review that far-reaching measure closely. The association can also claim its costs and, if the letting has damaged common parts, compensation for that damage.

The association must act consistently. Tolerating short-stay by three owners for years and then acting against the fourth weakens its case. A decision that treats comparable cases differently can be challenged as contrary to 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. If the association stays passive instead, the position of individual owners is explained in our article on what you can do when a VvE fails its duties.

What do you risk as an owner?

Usually more than the rental income. An injunction, daily penalties, legal costs and gaps in insurance cover can quickly outweigh what the letting earns.

An injunction ends the letting immediately, which leaves you facing tenants who have to leave. Penalty payments build up per day and can be enforced. Cost orders in these proceedings can be substantial.

Insurance is the risk that owners often overlook. Building policies taken out by associations may exclude or limit cover for damage caused by commercial use or by use other than as a dwelling. Some require notice of any change of use. If a fire or a water leak starts in a flat that was let commercially in breach of the deed, the insurer may reduce or refuse cover. The consequences are not limited to the owner concerned: the association and the other owners can be left with a shortfall. The same goes for your personal liability position, so check it before the first letting, not after. Our overview of who pays for damage in an apartment building explains how those losses are divided.

Tenancy law adds another layer, which can work for or against you. A letting that is genuinely short by its nature falls outside the ordinary rules on tenant protection (article 7:232 paragraph 2 BW). But that exception is read narrowly. It depends on what the parties intended and how the flat is actually used. Since the Act on Fixed-Term Tenancies (Wet vaste huurcontracten) took effect on 1 July 2024, fixed-term tenancies for self-contained homes are in principle no longer possible, with limited statutory exceptions. If you assume a short-stay contract ends automatically on the agreed date and you are wrong, you may end up with a tenant who cannot easily be asked to leave and a VvE that objects to the letting at the same time. Meanwhile, the obligations that rest on a landlord apply in full.

What should owners and associations do?

Owners should read the deed before letting or buying. Associations should get their documents in order and enforce consistently, rather than improvise through the house rules.

For owners, the steps are 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 ban on commercial use are decisive, and you can find them in the public registers. Check the house rules and the minutes of recent meetings to see what policy the association actually applies. Then check the municipal rules for the address. Only after that, look at the tax and tenancy consequences with the right adviser. Our note on pitfalls in Dutch property law covers what else to check before you buy.

For associations, the priority is to get the documents in order. If the deed is silent or unclear, consider amending it rather than relying on house rules that will not hold. Under article 5:139 BW, an amendment needs the cooperation of all owners, or a decision of the meeting taken with at least four-fifths of the votes (or a larger majority if the deed requires it), followed by a notarial deed. Draw up an enforcement policy, apply it consistently, keep the insurance position under review, and record decisions clearly enough to enforce them. Where relations between owners have hardened but the building still has to function, mediation often achieves more than a court hearing.

We advise owners associations and apartment owners on the deed of division, the model regulations, enforcement, penalty clauses and proceedings about short-stay letting. Whether short-stay is allowed in your building, or how to respond to an injunction or a penalty, starts with a close reading of the deed. Our real estate lawyers assess the deed and your position and tell you what is realistic.

In summary

• The deed of division decides whether short-stay is allowed in your building; house rules cannot add a new ban.
• Courts look at the actual pattern of use: frequent turnover, commercial pricing and services point to exploitation, not living.
• A municipal permit and a permissive deed are separate requirements; you need both.
• A VvE enforces through a warning, a contractual penalty and, if needed, interim relief proceedings with daily penalties.
• To challenge a VvE decision, you have one month under article 5:130 BW.

Frequently asked questions

Unsure where you stand? Tell us about your situation. We will let you know your options within one working day.