(A)social renting?

In a housing market that is under pressure and where rents are high, housing associations provide an affordable alternative for people who need it. Under the Housing Act, housing associations have the (statutory) objective of providing or arranging housing for people who, due to their income or other circumstances, have difficulty finding suitable accommodation. With the help of state support, they can offer these people low rents. There is a very large shortage of these social housing units, resulting in a waiting list of at least 13 years.

Housing associations

In order to rent a property from a housing association, housing associations request information to check whether certain criteria are met, so that the (statutory) objective can be served. This is a preliminary assessment in which, among other things, the salary is checked. If the criteria are met, a person may be eligible for social housing. Homeowners will not be eligible for this, as they do not encounter difficulties in finding suitable housing.

However, research by the CPB shows that 19,726 tenants of social housing are homeowners. The CPD excludes homeowners who have owned their home for less than a year and those who own their home due to circumstances (e.g. divorce or inheritance), as these homeowners are less relevant to the (statutory) objective of housing associations. This results in approximately 10,000 structural tenants whose home ownership does conflict with the (statutory) objective. Given the long waiting list and the fact that only approximately 17,000 social housing units have been added in recent years, this is a substantial number.

According to the CPB, housing associations do not have a policy targeting these homeowners. There is only a check before the tenancy agreement is signed; after that, there appears to be no policy on checking homeowners. Homeowners can therefore continue to rent from the housing association while owning a home themselves. In this way, they displace people who do have difficulty finding suitable social housing. Moreover, this practice conflicts with the (statutory) objective of the housing associations.

Invoking “urgent personal use”

Can action be taken in situations like this? Yes, housing associations can invoke a ground for termination of a tenancy agreement under Article 274 of Book 7 of the Civil Code: “urgent personal use”. For a successful appeal on these grounds, a weighing of interests is required and the tenant must be able to obtain other suitable accommodation. The homeowners have such suitable accommodation, because they own a house. For urgent personal use, a weighing of interests takes place between the housing association’s interest in achieving its (statutory) goal of housing people who have difficulty finding suitable accommodation on the one hand, and the tenant’s interest in retaining this rented accommodation on the other. The outcome of this weighing of interests was unclear until recently, when the housing association Ymere terminated the lease of one of these homeowners with the help of the court.

Ymere terminates the tenancy agreement (ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2025:2080):

In 2025, the Amsterdam housing association Ymere took one of its tenants, who also owns two properties, to court. Ymere believes that it can terminate the tenancy agreement on the grounds of urgent personal use. In order to terminate the lease, Ymere must prove that, after weighing up the interests involved, Ymere cannot be expected to continue the lease and that the tenant can find other suitable accommodation.

The court ruled that the tenant no longer falls into the category of tenants covered by the statutory purpose, as he owns two properties. This does not serve the statutory interest. Under such circumstances, tenancy law offers sufficient scope for invoking urgent personal use.

The tenant argues that there is no suitable accommodation, as the properties he owns are rented out. The court does not agree with this position, because the tenant can invoke urgent personal use. This means that the tenant does have the possibility of finding suitable accommodation. In addition, the tenant defends himself by stating that his properties are rented out and that if he were to live there, his tenants would be left homeless. Terminating the tenancy agreement would therefore not lead to an increase in the housing stock. According to the court, this is correct, but Ymere rents out properties at relatively low prices, which means that terminating the tenancy agreement does serve the statutory purpose.

The weighing of interests shows that it is in Ymere’s interest to have the maximum number of homes available for people without housing who have a low income and are dependent on social housing. Whereas it is in the tenant’s interest to retain his relatively inexpensive rented home. The court considers the tenant’s interest to be insufficient in comparison with Ymere’s socially relevant interest.

Consequences of the ruling

The question is what impact this ruling will have. This is only a single ruling by the court, so there is no certainty that other judges will follow it in similar cases.

In addition, this ground for termination requires a weighing of interests each time. In this case, it was clear that Ymere’s interests outweighed those of the tenant, but there are circumstances in which the weighing of interests may tip the other way.

Moreover, there is a possibility that the tenant of the homeowner cannot be evicted from the home, leaving the homeowner without suitable accommodation. This can cause uncertainty for both tenants and housing associations. This weighing of interests was not included in the CPB study.

In response to this ruling, the chairman of Ymere has stated that he will investigate whether there are more issues of this kind. They have heard from other housing associations that this problem also affects them and they intend to work together to identify similar cases. According to the Amsterdam District Court, research shows that there are still around 1,000 homeowners with social housing in Amsterdam. According to Ymere, in order to find them, discussions could be held with the Land Registry to gain easy insight into tenants’ home ownership. This would make it easier to find these homeowners. The housing associations would then have to weigh up whether their interests prevail over those of the tenant. If so, the housing associations could terminate the tenancy agreement.

Does this way of using houses offer a solution to the rental shortage? No, there are too few homeowners to solve the rental shortage. This solution will certainly help people, but it concerns a (relatively) limited group.

Moreover, this solution will lead to a greater flow of people into the private sector. The question is how useful this is.

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