The landlords’ right to increase your rent in Denmark

The landlords’ right to increase your rent in Denmark

The landlord may, if special conditions are met, increase your rent.

Rules for rent increase: When can the landlord increase the rent?

If your landlords wishes to increase the rent, then there are some rules for that must be followed in order for it happen.. The mandatory requirements that must be met by the  landlord to legally raise the rent are as follows:

1) It is a house or housing that is used for residential purpose

The Danish Rent Act dictates that premises exclusively used for other than residential purposes (a so-called commercial lease) are not covered by these legislations.

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Every month, we help thousands of tenants both via our membership solution and our case processing. When we process the cases, we achieve a positive result for the tenants in 98% of the cases. We are here to help you who are potentially being deceived by your landlord, and you who actually want to keep the money you are entitled to.

2) The rent must be significantly lower than the value of the leased and may only be increased to what is reasonable

But when is the rent “significantly lower”?

The Danish Rent Act dictates that the assessment of this is based on the amount you’re currently paying compared to the rent paid in similar apartments in the respective residential area. Also taken into account is the location, size, quality, equipment and maintenance condition.

Furthermore it must be taken into account that improvements of the apartment in form of renovation or others are not included in this assessment.

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3) The tenant must have lived in the residence for a minimum of 2 years, or it must be 2 years since the rent was last raised

However, an exception to this is if the tenant and the landlord have agreed that the rent follows Denmark’s Statistics net price index. If this is agreed upon in section 11 of the lease, the rent can be raised annually if the landlord gives the tenant a written notice of the increase in rent.

4) The rent increase must be notified 3 months before it becomes a reality

One of the most important rules when it comes to rent increase is that it must be notified in writing. And it must contain a factual and reasonable explanation of the increase and the tenants’ rights to file a complaint. If this has not been done, the rent increase is invalid.

The tenant can appeal for up to 6 weeks after the rent increase has been announced by the landlord. If the landlord wishes to maintain the demand for the rent increase, he must bring the case to the Rent Assessment Committee who will decide if the justification of the rent increase is valid.

Until the verdict, the landlord may maintain the increase of rent, if it does not exceed 15 kr. per m2 gross area of floor space.

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Note if there is an increase in the property tax or the property is imposed to new or increased operating costs for water, electricity, toilet etc., the rules applying are like the ones in the rent act about rent increase in connecting with this.

However, there is a small difference.

Among other things, the landlord can demand the rent increased retroactively if he makes the demand of rental increase no later than 5 months after the expense was imposed on the property.
The rules are a base and therefore any agreement with the landlord can’t be made to the tenant disadvantage.

Learn how DIGURA can help you in case you pay too much in rent.

Get legal advice and avoid being deceived

This topic can be very complicated as a tenant. The above is to be seen as a general guidance and not as downright legal advice. We always recommend that you contact us to ensure that you get the proper necessary legal advice that is relevant for your specific case.

You can get help with this topic but also any other matters you may have. Unfortunately, we see many tenants that are being deceived. Often, they miss out on a lot of money – anything from a couple thousands to 30-40,000 kroner. Imagine what else you could spend the money on.

Let us help you

At DIGURA we are always available and easy to reach, you have your own legal advisor, and best of all you only pay if we win your case. Therefore, it is risk free for you to get help from us.

We have achieved a positive result for tenants in 98% of all the cases that we have processed. We have a 4.6 score on Trustpilot, 5 star rating on Facebook, and we have helped more than 1000 tenants. We really want to help you too.

If you are unsure about anything in the article, our team is ready to help in the chat. You can find the chat in the bottom right corner.

If you need legal advice, you can get your case assessed below. It is free and our competent legal team will make a non-committal assessment of your case.

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