Security Deposit in the Netherlands: The 2-Month Maximum Rule

The Official Rule

Since 1 July 2023, Dutch landlords have been bound by a hard cap on how much they can charge as a rental deposit, known locally as borg or waarborgsom. According to official Rijksoverheid guidance, the maximum is two months of base rent (kale huur) for any contract signed on or after that date. The cap comes from the Wet goed verhuurderschap (Good Landlordship Act), which added Article 7:261b to the Dutch Civil Code specifically to standardize deposit practices that used to vary widely from landlord to landlord.

Two details matter more than they might seem to at first. First, the calculation is based on rent alone, not your total monthly payment. Service costs, utility advance payments, and extras like a parking space fee are excluded from the base the deposit is calculated against. Second, the cap is not retroactive. If your contract was signed before 1 July 2023, the older, looser norm still applies, and landlords could legally ask for up to three months’ base rent under those earlier agreements.

Getting Your Deposit Back

When the tenancy ends, the clock starts running immediately. Landlords generally have 14 days to return the deposit in full if there is nothing to settle, and up to 30 days if they need to deduct something first, according to Volkshuisvesting Nederland’s official guidance. Crucially, what a landlord is allowed to deduct is a short, closed list, not a general “whatever we feel like” category: unpaid rent, outstanding service costs, damage caused by the tenant during the tenancy, and an energy performance fee where applicable. Ordinary wear and tear from normal living does not count as damage, and administrative or handling fees are not a valid deduction either. If a landlord disputes what condition the property was in, the burden of proof is on them, not on you, to show the damage existed and that you caused it.

Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Pexels

What Real People Get Wrong

The most common mistake is assuming the Huurcommissie, the body most newcomers hear about first for anything rent-related, is also where you complain about a withheld or overcharged deposit. It is not. The Huurcommissie’s jurisdiction covers rent pricing disputes and WWS point calculations, not deposits. A deposit dispute is a civil law matter that belongs at the kantonrechter (subdistrict court), and for claims up to 25,000 EUR, Dutch tenant-law guides including Rechtfabriek note you generally do not need a lawyer to file the claim yourself. The recommended first move before going anywhere near a courtroom is simpler: a written letter giving the landlord a firm 14-day deadline to pay, which creates a paper trail if the case does escalate.

The second recurring mix-up is tenants underestimating what municipalities can now do. Since the Wet goed verhuurderschap took effect, every municipality has run a reporting point where tenants can flag bad-landlord behavior, deposit violations included, and municipalities can issue warnings or administrative fines separately from whatever civil claim you pursue yourself. According to Gemeente Den Haag’s official page on the law, a first fine can run up to roughly 22,500 EUR, rising to around 90,000 EUR for repeat violations within the same period, and these figures are periodically adjusted upward under the underlying criminal-code fine categories the law references, so treat them as an order of magnitude rather than a fixed number that never moves. A municipal complaint does not get your own money back directly, but it puts pressure on a landlord in a way an individual civil claim alone does not, and it is free to file.

Step by Step

1. Check your contract date first. If it was signed before 1 July 2023, the two-month cap does not apply, and up to three months’ base rent could legitimately be requested.
2. Confirm the deposit is calculated on base rent only, not on your total monthly payment including service costs or a parking fee.
3. Keep a signed move-in and move-out condition report, ideally with photos and dates, since the burden of proof for any damage claim sits with the landlord.
4. Track the 14-day and 30-day deadlines from the day the tenancy ends, and send a written demand letter if the deadline passes with no deposit and no explanation.
5. If the landlord still does not pay, take the claim to the kantonrechter, not the Huurcommissie, and consider a parallel complaint to your municipality’s good-landlordship reporting point if you suspect the original deposit itself exceeded the legal maximum.

Compliance Note

This page summarizes the general Dutch security deposit rules under the Wet goed verhuurderschap, based on official Rijksoverheid and national housing policy guidance current as of 2026. It is not legal advice. Municipal fine amounts in particular are indexed periodically and can differ from what is cited here by the time you read this. If you are disputing a deposit or facing an overcharge, confirm your specific situation with the Juridisch Loket, a qualified tenant-rights advisor, or your municipality’s own good-landlordship reporting point before acting.