Rent protection in the Netherlands: the puntensysteem that caps your rent, the 2026 limits, and how the Huurcommissie lowers a too-high rent

In the Netherlands, a rental home that scores up to 186 quality points has a legal maximum rent. The points come from the woningwaarderingsstelsel (WWS, the housing valuation system), which everyone calls the puntensysteem (points system). Your home earns points for its size, energy label, WOZ value (the official municipal property value) and facilities. The total decides the highest rent your landlord may charge. Since the Wet betaalbare huur (Affordable Rent Act) of 1 July 2024, this protection covers new contracts up to the middle segment, which in 2026 means rents up to €1,228.07 per month. The Huurcommissie (Rent Tribunal) enforces the maximum for €25 per case. This guide shows how to count your points, what the 2026 limits are, which rules apply to older contracts, and what to do when you pay too much. The rental contracts guide covers what your contract type means for notice, deposit and ending the tenancy.

Every part of the home adds points. The main factors:

• Floor area: each square metre counts, so the surface of rooms, kitchen and bathroom is measured.
• WOZ value: the property value your gemeente (municipality) sets every year.
• Energy label: a good label adds many points. A poor label costs points: label E, F or G means 4, 9 or 15 fewer points for most homes, under the energy label rules.
• The kitchen: the length of the counter and built-in equipment such as an oven, cooktop, extractor or fridge.
• The bathroom and toilet, and whether they are yours alone.
• Heating and cooling per room.
• Private outdoor space: a garden or balcony adds points.

The point total maps to a euro amount in tables that the government indexes every year. More points means a higher allowed rent. Since 1 January 2025, a landlord must state the points count of the home in every new contract, so you can check the count against the rent from day one. Rooms with shared facilities have their own point scheme without WOZ points, and rooms are always in the regulated system. A room never falls in the free sector, whatever the landlord charges.

The points and the starting rent together decide which segment your home is in. The euro boundaries change every 1 January; these are the 2026 figures.

The segment also caps the yearly rent increase. For 2026 the maximum increases are 4.1% for social housing (from 1 July 2026), 6.1% for middenhuur and 4.4% for the free sector (both since 1 January 2026). The rental contracts guide explains the increase rules and how to object to a wrong increase.

The huurprijscheck on huurcommissie.nl is the official, free way to count your points. There are separate checks for self-contained homes, for rooms and for mobile homes, and the check is also available in English. You fill in the details that earn points: the floor area per room, the WOZ value, the energy label, and what the kitchen, bathroom and outdoor space look like. The result shows the point total and the maximum legal rent for the home. Compare that with the kale huur (bare rent) in your contract, so without service charges. Keep a copy of the result; it is your evidence in any later step.

The Wet betaalbare huur works with a start-date line at 1 July 2024. For contracts from that date, the points maximum applies in full to every home up to 186 points. For older contracts, transitional rules decide what you can claim:

The first 6 months of a tenancy are the strongest moment to act. If you ask the Huurcommissie to test your starting rent within 6 months of the start of the contract, and the rent is above the points maximum, the rent is lowered back to the start date. The landlord must then repay everything you overpaid from month one. For a temporary contract signed before 1 July 2024, the window runs until 6 months after that contract ends.

After 6 months the routes split. Is the home regulated, so up to 186 points with a contract from 1 July 2024, or social housing from before that date? Then you can still go to the Huurcommissie at any time. The difference is the money: the lower rent then applies to the future, and the months you already overpaid stay paid. Is the home genuinely free sector, so 187 points or more at a rent above €1,228.07? Then the 6-month starting-rent test was the only check, and after the window the agreed rent stands. This is why running the huurprijscheck early matters more in the free sector than anywhere else.

Servicekosten (service charges) are the amounts you pay on top of the bare rent, for example for cleaning of shared spaces, a caretaker, or furniture in a furnished home. Two rules protect you. First, the landlord may only charge costs that were actually made; service charges are not extra profit. Second, the landlord must send you a specified statement every year before 1 July about the previous calendar year, so you can see what the monthly advance payments were spent on.

If the statement never comes, or the amounts look wrong, ask the landlord for it in writing first. After that you can have the annual statement assessed by the Huurcommissie. You have 2 years for this, counted from the day the statement should have reached you. For the statement over 2024, for example, the deadline is 30 June 2027. From 1 January 2027, new servicekosten rules take effect: only 8 fixed types of costs may still be charged as service charges, and the Huurcommissie will be able to assess all costs in an advance payment.

You start a case online with a form on huurcommissie.nl: you name the landlord, describe the dispute and add your evidence, such as the contract and your huurprijscheck result. A case costs a tenant €25; a landlord pays €500. If you win, you get the full €25 back. If your income is at minimum or social-assistance level, you can ask for a fee waiver.

• Intake: the Huurcommissie checks your form and payment, and asks for missing information.
• Investigation: in most rent cases an examiner visits the home, measures it and counts the points. Both sides receive the investigation report and can respond.
• Hearing: if needed, a three-member committee discusses the case in an online session where both sides can speak.
• Ruling: you receive the decision in writing.

The Huurcommissie aims to decide a case in 4 to 6 months. The ruling is usually binding: it counts as a new agreement between you and the landlord. Either side that disagrees can go to the kantonrechter (sub-district court) within 8 weeks. If nobody does, the ruling is final.

You do not carry rent enforcement alone. Under the Wet goed verhuurderschap (Good Landlord Act), every gemeente runs a meldpunt (reporting point) for landlord misconduct, and your landlord must give you its contact details. Reporting is free. Since 1 January 2025 the gemeente can also act directly against a landlord who charges more than the points allow: first a warning, then an order to correct the rent, and finally a fine of up to €100,000. The gemeente can even take over the management of a property from a landlord who keeps breaking the rules. The meldpunt also handles other misconduct, such as intimidation or a landlord who blocks your registration at the address; for that last problem, see the address registration guide.

Your signature does not make an illegal rent legal. For a regulated home with a contract from 1 July 2024, the points maximum is binding law, and a contract clause cannot override it. Landlords count on tenants believing that signing settled the matter. It did not: run the huurprijscheck, send the landlord the result with a written request to lower the rent, and go to the Huurcommissie if the answer is no. Within the first 6 months you also get the overpaid months back.

A ruling that neither side takes to court within 8 weeks is final and counts as the new agreement. From that moment the ruled rent is the rent you owe, so pay that amount, and keep the ruling with your payment records. If the landlord refuses to repay what you overpaid, the Huurcommissie does not collect it for you; that money claim goes to the kantonrechter. Report the landlord to the gemeente meldpunt as well: a landlord who keeps charging above the legal maximum is exactly the case the gemeente can fine.

Landlords often answer a rent check with their own, higher count: a larger measured surface, a better energy label, a higher WOZ value. You do not have to win that argument yourself. Once your case runs, the Huurcommissie sends its own examiner, who measures the home and counts the points on the spot. Both sides see the investigation report and can respond before the ruling. Your job is only to start the case and to hand over your contract, your rent payments and your own check result.

In a furnished home, the furniture is paid through the service charges, and the same actual-cost rule applies. The Huurcommissie values furniture from the landlord's purchase invoices and normally writes it off at 20% of the value per year over 5 years. A high monthly 'furniture' amount for an old sofa and a worn bed does not survive that calculation. Ask for the breakdown and the invoices with the yearly statement, and have the statement assessed when the landlord cannot show them. Furniture charges are also not part of the bare rent, so they cannot be used to lift a regulated home into the free sector.

If you are still looking for a home, the find-rental guide covers where homes are listed and how offers work. Before you sign, the rental contracts guide explains contract types, deposits and notice. And if your rent is under €932.93, check the huurtoeslag guide: a points-checked rent and rent benefit together often make the difference between too expensive and affordable.