The VvE and Dutch apartment rights law: a guide for owners in Eindhoven and Amsterdam

If you have bought a flat in the Netherlands, you have not bought a building. You have bought an appartementsrecht, and with it membership of a Vereniging van Eigenaars (VvE), the owners’ association for the block. Membership is compulsory, it decides a great deal about your home, and you cannot walk away.

What an apartment right actually is

Dutch law does not treat a flat as a separate piece of property. Each apartment right is a share in the property included in the division, carrying with it the exclusive right to use particular parts of the building that are laid out to be used as a self-contained whole (art. 5:106 BW). The share may also cover exclusive use of land, such as a garden or parking space.

So the right has two halves. One is ownership: you co-own the whole complex — roof, foundations, façade, stairwell, lift — in the proportion fixed in the deed. The other is use: you alone may use the flat behind your front door. That explains most of what follows: decisions about the building are taken collectively, you cannot demand that the community be divided, and you cannot resign while keeping the flat.

The deed of division and the division drawing

The division is made by notarial deed, the akte van splitsing, registered in the public registers kept by the Land Registry. It must be accompanied by a division drawing, the splitsingstekening (art. 5:109 BW), and must contain a fixed list of elements, including the description of each private part and the regulations of the association (art. 5:111 BW).

Together these documents draw the boundary between private and common parts — the commonest source of VvE disputes, because it decides who pays. If a leaking window frame is common, the association pays; if private, you do.

They are interpreted objectively: because buyers and lenders must rely on the registers, what matters is what the documents convey to an outside reader, not what the original parties intended. Where deed and drawing contradict each other, neither automatically prevails; the court decides which carries more weight, looking at the level of detail and at how reasonable the outcome is (Hoge Raad 1 November 2013, ECLI:NL:HR:2013:1078).

Where the boundary usually runs (your own deed always governs)

The model regulations and their generations

The deed must contain regulations covering which debts and costs fall on the owners jointly, the annual accounts and contributions, the use, management and maintenance of the common parts, insurance, and the constitution of the association (art. 5:112 BW). Rather than write this out, a deed declares a standard set — the modelreglement — applicable and lists the deviations.

Several generations circulate: 1973, 1983, 1992, 2006, 2017 and a 2021 model for small associations, plus models for service flats and sub-divisions. Which applies is answered by reading your deed, and it matters: older models impose a quorum, the 2006 and 2017 models dropped it for ordinary majority decisions, and the 2017 model already deals with charging points.

Below the regulations sit the house rules, the huishoudelijk reglement, adopted by the meeting. These fill in day-to-day detail but cannot conflict with the deed or the law; such a clause is void.

The VvE as a legal person, and why you cannot resign

The association comes into existence with the division. It is a legal person with its own assets, bank account and liabilities, registered at the Chamber of Commerce. Its task is to manage the community, apart from the parts intended for separate use, and to maintain a reserve fund (art. 5:126 BW). It may represent the owners in and out of court and enforce what owners owe one another.

Membership follows the apartment right automatically: you do not join, you cannot give notice, and on a sale it passes to your buyer. In a mixed association, where a corporation or investor owns part of the block, one member may hold a decisive share of the votes.

The general meeting, votes and quorum

The general meeting of owners is the highest organ. The meeting and its decision-making are governed by art. 5:124 to 5:135 BW. It must meet at least once a year for the accounts, budget and contributions, and is convened by the board or the chair, or at owners’ request (art. 5:127 BW).

Voting is not one flat, one vote unless the deed says so. The shares are equal unless the deed sets a different ratio, and if it does, the deed must state the basis for it (art. 5:113 BW). That fraction, the breukdeel, drives both your votes and your share of the costs.

Most decisions need a simple majority of the votes cast. Older regulations attach a quorum: if fewer than half the votes are represented, nothing valid can be decided and a second meeting must be convened, at which the same proposal can be carried however few owners attend, sometimes with a higher majority. Decisions outside a meeting require unanimity; amending the deed normally requires a four-fifths majority of the total votes, a notarial deed and the cooperation of mortgagees (art. 5:139 BW).

The Act on the digital general meeting of private legal persons was adopted by the House of Representatives on 16 December 2025 and passed the Senate without debate on 2 June 2026, and was published as Staatsblad 2026, 161. It is not yet in force; the date will be set by royal decree in the course of 2026. From that moment a fully digital or hybrid general meeting is possible without prior authorisation in the deed of division.

The board and the administrator

The association has a board, appointed and dismissed by the general meeting (art. 5:131 BW). In a small block that is usually one or two owners serving in their spare time. The board executes decisions; it does not set policy.

Larger associations also engage a professional administrator, the VvE-beheerder. The administrator is a contractor, not an organ: it keeps the books, collects contributions, arranges insurance and maintenance and prepares meetings, with only the powers the meeting and the management agreement give it. If service is poor the remedy lies in the contract — the administrator answers to the association, not to you.

Reserve fund, maintenance plan and service charges

Every association must maintain a reserve fund for costs other than the ordinary annual costs (art. 5:126 BW). Since the Act improving the functioning of owners’ associations — the Wet verbetering functioneren VvE — that duty has teeth. For buildings wholly or partly in residential use, the annual contribution to the reserve must be at least the amount following from a proper multi-year maintenance plan or, failing that, 0.5 per cent of the reconstruction value taken from the buildings insurance. It must sit in a separate account in the association’s name, unless the meeting decides otherwise by a large majority or a bank guarantee is given. The Act came into force on 1 January 2018, with a three-year transition that ended on 1 January 2021.

The multi-year maintenance plan, the meerjarenonderhoudsplan or MJOP, must cover at least ten years, be no more than five years old, and set out foreseen maintenance, repairs and renewals and their cost. It is the best single indicator of a healthy association. The Act also gave associations an express power to borrow unless the regulations exclude it (art. 5:126 BW), with each owner’s exposure following the breukdeel.

Contributions are set annually by the meeting on the basis of a budget. They are a debt owed to the association, not a discretionary payment: an owner who disagrees must challenge the decision, not withhold the money, and set-off is generally unavailable. Non-payment attracts interest, collection costs and proceedings.

On a transfer the new owner becomes liable, alongside the seller, for the contributions owed for the current and the preceding financial year (art. 5:122 BW). The notary normally asks the board for a statement of arrears and of the reserve fund and settles the arrears from the purchase price; if that is not done, the bill lands on the buyer. Those who were owners when a debt of the association arose are also jointly liable for it, each in the ratio of their breukdeel (art. 5:113 BW).

Alterations: your flat, the common parts, floors and balconies

Inside your flat your freedom is wide but not unlimited: the regulations may contain rules on the use, management and maintenance of the private parts (art. 5:112 BW), and usually do. Anything touching the structure, façade, roof or a shared installation needs a decision of the meeting.

• Hard flooring. The structural floor is common; the covering is private, but the noise reaches your neighbour. Most regulations or house rules either forbid hard floor coverings without permission or set a minimum impact-sound insulation standard, often an Ico value. Laying parquet or tiles without checking is a reliable route to court, and the usual outcome is an order to take it up.
• Balconies, roof terraces and façades. Balcony glazing, awnings, air conditioning units, balustrades and heavy decking all affect a common part, even where you hold the exclusive right of use. They need the meeting’s consent, often on conditions about appearance or future maintenance.

Where consent is required and unreasonably withheld, you can ask the sub-district court (kantonrechter) for a substitute authorisation (art. 5:121 BW, applied to decisions of the meeting by art. 5:129 BW). The court asks whether the association had reasonable grounds to refuse; it tends to side with the association where the owner gave it too little to judge, so a file with drawings and a structural opinion improves your position.

Letting out, short stay and holiday letting

Letting to a household on an ordinary residential tenancy is usually permitted. The regulations will normally require you to notify the association of the occupier and to have the occupier sign a declaration accepting the deed, the regulations and the house rules, so that these bind the occupier directly.

Short-term and holiday letting is different. Deeds and regulations commonly restrict a flat to residential use and prohibit use as a guesthouse, boarding house or for room letting. Repeated paid short stays are generally treated as commercial exploitation rather than living there, and so fall outside a residential-use clause even where holidays are not mentioned. Municipal rules apply on top, and they are tightening. In Amsterdam a holiday let needs a permit and a registration number, every let must be reported to the municipality, and the ceiling is thirty nights a year; from 1 April 2026 that drops to fifteen nights in eleven designated neighbourhoods in the Centrum district and the Pijp, under a policy rule that reserves a further step down to a temporary ban if fifteen nights proves insufficient. In Eindhoven, room letting and the splitting of a dwelling require planning permission under the omgevingsplan; the policy rules in force since 1 January 2026 refuse permission within thirty metres of an existing lawful room let outside the centre, set minimum floor areas per unit and per room, and close six named neighbourhoods to new applications altogether. Both regimes change often, so check the current verordening or policy rule for the address rather than relying on a figure. A municipal permit does not override the deed.

Solar panels, heat pumps, insulation and charging points

Almost every sustainability measure touches a common part. Panels sit on a common roof, a heat pump on a common façade or in a plant room, insulation on a common wall, and a charging point draws on the building’s shared electrical capacity. The decision therefore belongs to the general meeting, and the majority required is whatever the deed and the applicable model regulations prescribe for that kind of expenditure. Older regulations often demand a qualified majority, sometimes with a quorum, for spending above a threshold or for works counting as renewal rather than maintenance. Until the law changes, the route is to get the item properly on the agenda with a costed proposal and a financing plan, and to check what borrowing under art. 5:126 BW and available subsidies can carry.

Two developments matter. A bill to accelerate sustainability and maintenance in owners’ associations went to public consultation on 1 July 2026, running to 20 September 2026; as consulted it would allow such decisions to be taken by a simple majority of the votes cast, extend the maintenance plan horizon from ten to thirty years, and permit rights of use for installations such as solar panels without amending the deed. Separately, a scheme is in preparation under which an owner wanting a charging point would notify the association rather than seek permission. The bill is still at the consultation and parliamentary preparation stage, so none of it is law yet.

Challenging a decision, and asking the court to step in

Dutch law distinguishes two defects. A decision conflicting with the law or the deed of division is a nullity: it never existed and no time limit applies. A decision taken in breach of a procedural rule, or unacceptable by the standards of reasonableness and fairness, is voidable: it stands until a court sets it aside.

To have a decision annulled you must apply to the sub-district court within one month of the day on which you learned of the decision or could have learned of it (art. 5:130 BW, read with the general rule on decisions of a legal person in art. 2:15 BW). That month is short and it is fatal: owners who wait for the minutes, or who negotiate with the board first, regularly lose the right to complain. Annulment attacks a decision that was taken; substitute authorisation supplies one that was refused.

The dormant VvE and how to wake it up

Many associations, especially in small pre-war blocks split into two or three flats, exist on paper but do nothing: no board, no meetings, no accounts, no reserve fund, sometimes no collective buildings insurance. That is a slapende VvE. It is not lawful, and it increasingly blocks sales and remortgages. Reactivation, in order:

• Obtain the deed of division and drawing from the Land Registry and establish which model regulations apply.
• Convene a general meeting as the regulations prescribe and minute it properly; if the board will not act, owners can normally convene it themselves.
• Appoint a board, and an administrator if useful, register both at the Chamber of Commerce, and open a bank account in the association’s name plus a separate reserve account.
• Arrange or verify buildings insurance, check the sum insured against the reconstruction value, commission a maintenance plan and set the contributions on the basis of it.
• If a co-owner refuses to cooperate, these obligations can be enforced through the court.

What a buyer should check before signing

• The deed of division and drawing, and which model regulations apply — read the private/common boundary before you offer.
• Use restrictions: residential use only, bans on room letting or short stay, rules on pets, flooring and alterations.
• The house rules, and minutes of the last three meetings — the fastest test of whether the association works.
• Accounts, budget and reserve fund balance, and whether the reserve sits in a separate account.
• The MJOP: its date, the period covered, and whether contributions match it — a low contribution with a thin reserve is a deferred bill.
• Any decision on major works or a special levy — it binds you after completion — and any borrowing.
• A board statement on arrears, and confirmation that the notary will settle them at completion (art. 5:122 BW).
• The buildings insurance and reconstruction value, registration at the Chamber of Commerce, and, for a sub-divided building, the sub-division deed too.

If the documents are not delivered in time, build a resolutive condition into the purchase agreement so you can withdraw if the file is worse than presented.