When is there a rental agreement? And when does one occur? temporary rental agreement? Can a tenant who has entered through Airbnb, but subsequently makes separate agreements with the landlord, claim legal rental protection? In summary proceedings, a landlord – who has been sleeping rough since September because he cannot enter his own bedroom – asked for a “claim for eviction”. He wants the tenant to leave his house immediately. But the subdistrict court judge does not agree with that.
The subdistrict court judge rules, as can be read in the written judgment published on Tuesday, that there is no question of a rental that is “by its nature short-term”. And this means that no matter how much the landlord wants access to his own bedroom again, the tenant does not have to leave the home based on rent protection.
The fact that the landlord can no longer live and stay in his home in a normal manner is no reason for eviction,
How could it have escalated to such an extent? The owner of the house regularly stays in his native Ethiopia for his health and to visit family. He then rents out his home through Airbnb. At the end of 2024, a father will book two bedrooms for himself and his three children aged 12, 16 and 18 through that platform. The bathroom, toilet, kitchen and living room are shared with the landlord, among others. Until that point it is clear: Airbnb always concerns temporary rental.
But things become complicated when the rental agreement via Airbnb is terminated and another agreement is concluded. The rental price of 1,800 euros will be transferred directly to the landlord’s account from May 4, 2025.
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‘Rental agreement for an indefinite period’
“A living space has been made available here for a fee. If we translate that into easy language, we can conclude: that is rent,” the subdistrict court judge said during the summary proceedings. According to the tenant, who left for New Zealand when he was ten and now wants to build a new life in the Netherlands with his three children, this lease agreement was never temporary. „Welcome to my mansionit was said. There was no deadline,” he said during the hearing.
The subdistrict court judge concludes that nothing has been recorded in writing that refutes that statement. Even according to the landlord’s statement, there is a rental agreement for an indefinite period, he writes. “After all, a rental agreement for a period of one month that is subsequently extended by one month must be regarded by law as a rental agreement for an indefinite period.”
The fact that the landlord “can no longer live and stay in his home in a normal manner” is no reason for eviction, the judge further states. It is an “annoying situation”, but it does not affect the legal rental protection. “In addition, this situation is at the expense and risk” of the landlord himself. “Because he has (partly) rented out his home without making sufficiently clear agreements about this, in particular about the end of the lease.”
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