VvE and apartment rights in the Netherlands: rules, costs and disputes

If you buy a flat in the Netherlands, you do not buy a separate building but an apartment right (appartementsrecht), and with it compulsory membership of the owners’ association (Vereniging van Eigenaars, VvE). You cannot leave that association while you own the flat, and its decisions bind you, even if you voted against them.

The deed of division sets the rules: which parts of the building are yours, which are common, how many votes you have and what share of the costs you pay. Below we explain how the system works, how decisions are taken and challenged, and what you should check before you buy, alter or let your flat.

What exactly do you own with an apartment right?

An apartment right is a share in the whole building and the land, combined with the exclusive right to use a particular part as a self-contained unit (Article 5:106 of the Dutch Civil Code, BW). The share may also include the exclusive use of land, such as a garden or a parking space.

You therefore co-own the whole complex, including the roof, foundations, façade, stairwell and lift, in the proportion fixed in the deed, while only you may use the flat behind your front door. That is why decisions about the building are collective and you cannot leave the association while keeping the flat.

What do the deed of division and the drawing determine?

The division is created by a notarial deed of division (akte van splitsing), registered in the public registers of the Land Registry (Kadaster). The deed must be accompanied by a division drawing (splitsingstekening), which shows the boundaries of each private part (Article 5:109 BW), and must contain a set of fixed elements, including the regulations of the association (Article 5:111 BW).

Together, these documents draw the line between private and common parts. That line is the most common source of disputes, because it decides who pays. If a leaking window frame is a common part, the association pays for the repair; if it is private, you do.

The documents are interpreted objectively. Because buyers and lenders rely on the public registers, what counts is what the documents convey to an outside reader, not what the original parties intended. If the deed and the drawing contradict each other, neither automatically prevails. The court weighs the level of detail in each document, what the documents reveal about the intention behind the division and the reasonableness of the outcome (Supreme Court, 1 November 2013, ECLI:NL:HR:2013:1078).

Where does the boundary usually run?

The table below shows the usual division. Your own deed and drawing always take precedence.

Which regulations apply to your building?

The deed must contain regulations covering, among other things, the costs the owners bear jointly, the annual accounts and contributions, the use, management and maintenance of the common parts, insurance and the constitution of the association (Article 5:112 BW). In practice, the deed declares a standard model (modelreglement) applicable and lists any deviations.

Several generations of model regulations are in use, including those of 1973, 1983, 1992, 2006 and 2017, as well as a model for small associations and models for sub-divisions. Which one applies to you follows from your deed, and it matters. Older models require a quorum for decisions, while the 2006 and 2017 models dropped this for ordinary majority decisions, and the 2017 model already contains rules on charging points.

Below the regulations sit the house rules (huishoudelijk reglement), adopted by the general meeting. They fill in daily practice, but may not conflict with the deed or the law. A provision that does is void.

Why can you not leave the VvE?

The association comes into existence automatically when the building is divided. It is a legal person with its own assets, bank account and debts, registered with the Chamber of Commerce (KvK).

Its task is to manage the common parts and to maintain a reserve fund (Article 5:126 BW). It can represent the owners in and out of court and enforce what owners owe each other under the deed.

Membership is attached to the apartment right. You do not join, you cannot give notice and, when you sell, your membership passes to the buyer. The only way out is to sell the flat. In a mixed association, where a housing corporation or an investor owns part of the flats, one member may hold a decisive share of the votes.

How does the general meeting take decisions?

The general meeting of owners is the highest body of the association, and most decisions require a simple majority of the votes cast. How many votes you have depends on the deed, not on the principle of one flat, one vote.

The rules on the meeting and its decisions are in Articles 5:124 to 5:135 BW and in the regulations. The meeting must be held at least once a year to adopt the accounts, the budget and the contributions. It is convened by the board or the chair, and owners can ask for a meeting themselves if the regulations allow it.

The shares of the owners are equal unless the deed sets a different ratio, and if it does, the deed must state the basis for it (Article 5:113 BW). That fraction (breukdeel) determines both your votes and your share of the costs.

Older regulations require a quorum: if fewer than half the votes are represented, no valid decision can be taken and a second meeting must be called. At that second meeting, the same proposal can usually be adopted however few owners attend, sometimes with a higher majority. Decisions outside a meeting require unanimity (Article 5:128 BW).

Amending the deed of division always requires a notarial deed (Article 5:139 BW). It can be done by all owners together or, if the regulations allow, by the association on the basis of a meeting decision with a majority of at least four fifths of the votes. Mortgage lenders must in principle give their consent.

Can the meeting be held online?

Only if your regulations allow it for now. Legislation on digital general meetings of private legal persons will allow fully digital or hybrid meetings without prior authorisation in the deed, but only from a date set by royal decree, so check your regulations and the Staatsblad before you convene online.

What do the board and the administrator do?

The board carries out the decisions of the general meeting and represents the association; it does not set policy. It is appointed and dismissed by the general meeting (Article 5:131 BW). In a small building, the board usually consists of one or two owners who do the work in their spare time.

Larger associations often hire a professional administrator (VvE-beheerder) to keep the books, collect contributions and prepare meetings. The administrator is a contractor with only the powers its management agreement gives it, and it answers to the association, not to you personally.

What must the association set aside for maintenance?

Every association must maintain a reserve fund for costs other than the ordinary annual costs (Article 5:126 BW). Since the Act improving the functioning of owners’ associations (Wet verbetering functioneren VvE) came into force on 1 January 2018, that duty has become concrete.

For buildings wholly or partly used as housing, the annual contribution to the reserve fund must at least equal the amount that follows from a multi-year maintenance plan or, if there is no plan, 0.5 percent of the reconstruction value in the buildings insurance. The reserve must be kept in a separate account in the association’s name, unless the meeting decides otherwise with a large majority.

The multi-year maintenance plan (meerjarenonderhoudsplan, MJOP) must cover at least ten years and be updated at least every five years. It sets out the expected maintenance, repairs and renewals and their costs. For a buyer, it is the best single indicator of whether an association is healthy. The same act gave associations an express power to borrow, unless the regulations exclude it.

Do you have to pay the service charges?

Yes. The contributions are set each year by the meeting on the basis of a budget and are a debt you owe to the association. If you disagree with them, you must challenge the decision; you may not simply withhold payment, and set-off is generally not possible.

Late payment leads to statutory interest, collection costs and, if necessary, court proceedings. With a court judgment, the association can seize your assets, including the flat.

When a flat is sold, the new owner becomes jointly liable with the seller for the contributions owed for the current and the previous financial year (Article 5:122 BW). The notary therefore normally asks the board for a statement of arrears and pays these from the purchase price. If that does not happen, the buyer bears the risk.

Owners are also liable for debts of the association that arose while they were owners, each in proportion to their fraction (Article 5:113 BW). If the association cannot pay a contractor, the contractor can therefore turn to the individual owners for their share.

Which alterations need the association’s consent?

Inside your flat you have wide freedom, but it is not unlimited. The regulations may contain rules on the use, management and maintenance of the private parts (Article 5:112 BW), and usually do. Anything that affects the structure, the façade, the roof or a shared installation requires a decision of the meeting.

Two types of alteration cause the most disputes.

• Hard flooring. The structural floor is a common part, and the floor covering is private, but the noise reaches your neighbours. Most regulations or house rules either prohibit hard floors without permission or require a minimum level of impact sound insulation. If you lay parquet or tiles without checking, you risk an order to remove them.
• Balconies, roof terraces and façades. Balcony glazing, awnings, air conditioning units, balustrades and heavy decking all affect a common part, even where you have the exclusive right to use it. They need the meeting’s consent, often on conditions about appearance and future maintenance.

If consent is required and the association refuses it without reasonable grounds, you can ask the subdistrict court (kantonrechter) for a substitute authorisation (Article 5:121 BW). The court examines whether the association had reasonable grounds to refuse. It tends to side with the association if the owner provided too little information, so a request with drawings and a structural engineer’s opinion strengthens your position.

Can you let your flat or offer it for short stays?

Letting your flat to a household on an ordinary residential lease is usually permitted. The regulations normally require you to inform the association of the occupant and to have the occupant sign a declaration accepting the deed, the regulations and the house rules, so that these bind the occupant directly.

Short-stay and holiday letting is different. Deeds and regulations often restrict a flat to residential use and prohibit its use as a guesthouse, boarding house or for room letting. Repeated paid short stays are generally treated as commercial use rather than living, and therefore fall outside a residential use clause, even if holiday letting is not mentioned.

Municipal rules apply on top of this. In Amsterdam, holiday letting requires a permit and a registration number, every stay must be reported to the municipality, and the maximum is thirty nights a year. Since April 2026, the maximum is fifteen nights a year in designated parts of the Centrum district and De Pijp.

In Eindhoven, room letting and splitting a dwelling require a permit under the municipal environment plan (omgevingsplan). These regimes change often, and a municipal permit never overrides a prohibition in the deed.

How can you make the building more sustainable?

Almost every sustainability measure touches a common part: solar panels on the roof, a heat pump on the façade, insulation of a common wall, or a charging point on the building’s electrical capacity. The decision therefore belongs to the general meeting, with the majority your deed and model regulations prescribe.

Older regulations often demand a qualified majority, sometimes with a quorum, for spending above a set amount or for renewal rather than maintenance. Put the item on the agenda with a costed proposal and a financing plan, and check what borrowing by the association (Article 5:126 BW) and subsidies can cover. A 2026 bill to accelerate sustainability and maintenance in owners’ associations, which would allow such decisions by simple majority, has been through public consultation but is not law yet.

How do you challenge a decision of the general meeting?

You must ask the subdistrict court to annul the decision within one month of the day on which you learned of it or could have learned of it (Article 5:130 BW). That deadline is short and strict.

Dutch law distinguishes two types of defective decisions. A decision that conflicts with the law or the deed of division is void: it has no legal effect and no deadline applies. A decision taken in breach of a procedural rule, or one that is unacceptable under the standards of reasonableness and fairness, is voidable: it stands until the court annuls it.

Owners who wait for the minutes, or who first try to negotiate with the board, regularly lose their right to challenge a voidable decision. If in doubt, file the application within the month and negotiate in parallel.

How do you revive a dormant VvE?

Many associations in small older buildings exist only on paper: no board, no meetings, no accounts, no reserve fund. Such a dormant association (slapende VvE) breaches Article 5:126 BW and causes problems when a flat is sold or remortgaged.

• Obtain the deed of division and the drawing from the Kadaster and establish which model regulations apply.
• Convene a general meeting as the regulations prescribe and keep minutes; without a board, the owners can usually convene it themselves.
• Appoint a board, register the association with the KvK, and open a bank account and a separate reserve account in its name.
• Check the buildings insurance against the reconstruction value, commission a maintenance plan and set the contributions accordingly.

If a co-owner refuses to cooperate, these obligations can be enforced through the subdistrict court.

What should you check as a buyer or owner?

Ask the seller and the association for the key documents well before you sign, and read them. The deed of division and the state of the association are as important as the condition of the flat itself.

• The deed of division and drawing, and the model regulations that apply; check the boundary between private and common parts.
• Restrictions on use: residential use only, bans on room letting or short stays, and rules on pets, flooring and alterations.
• The house rules and the minutes of the last three meetings, which are the quickest test of whether the association functions.
• The accounts, the budget, the balance of the reserve fund and whether it is held in a separate account.
• The maintenance plan: its date, the period covered and whether the contributions match it. A low contribution with a thin reserve is a postponed bill.
• Decisions on major works, special levies or borrowing that will bind you after the transfer.
• A statement from the board on arrears, and confirmation that the notary will settle them at completion (Article 5:122 BW).
• The buildings insurance, the reconstruction value, the registration with the Chamber of Commerce and, for a sub-divided building, the sub-division deed.

If the documents are not available in time, include a resolutive condition in the purchase agreement so that you can withdraw if the file turns out worse than presented. The statutory rules on apartment rights are in Title 9 of Book 5 of the Civil Code, available on wetten.overheid.nl.

What should you check as a board member?

The board carries out the meeting’s decisions and can be held to account by the owners. Check:

• Whether the annual meeting adopts the accounts, the budget and the contributions every year.
• Whether the reserve contribution at least matches the maintenance plan, or 0.5 percent of the reconstruction value without a plan.
• Whether the reserve fund is held in a separate account in the association’s name.
• Whether the maintenance plan covers at least ten years and was updated within the last five.
• Whether notices, agendas and minutes follow the applicable model regulations, so that decisions cannot be annulled on procedure.

What can we do for you with your VvE?

Our real estate lawyers advise owners, buyers and boards of owners’ associations. In practice we:

• Review the deed of division, the drawing and the regulations before you buy or alter your flat.
• Assess whether a repair concerns a common or a private part, and who pays.
• File an application to annul a decision with the subdistrict court within the one-month deadline of Article 5:130 BW.
• Request a substitute authorisation under Article 5:121 BW when the association refuses consent without reasonable grounds.
• Help a board revive a dormant association or collect unpaid contributions.

Summary

• An apartment right is a share in the whole building with the exclusive use of your flat, and it comes with compulsory VvE membership.
• The deed of division and drawing decide what is private and what is common, and therefore who pays for repairs.
• Decisions are taken by the general meeting; you must challenge a voidable decision in the subdistrict court within one month.
• The association must keep a reserve fund based on a maintenance plan, and as a buyer you can be liable for the seller’s arrears for up to two years.
• Alterations affecting common parts and short-stay letting usually require consent or are prohibited, whatever the municipality allows.

Frequently asked questions