Right of withdrawal

In some cases you might regret having entered into a tenancy agreement. What can you do?

If you have entered into a tenancy agreement, you are initially bound by the agreement. The main rule is therefor that you, as a tenant, do not have right of withdrawal.

Pursuant to the Cancellation Act the tenant may however in some cases be given a right to withdraw from the contract.

• The landlord must act in a commercial capacity. This is usually someone who runs a tenancy company.
• The agreement must be concluded as a distance contract, or off-premise contract.

A distance contract is typically a contract about renting property, entered into via phone, SMS or e-mail, where the landlord does not request that the tenant sees the property before the contract is entered into. It is prerequisite that the landlord has deliberately organized it in such a way that the contract can be entered into without the tenant seeing the property, and via phone, SMS or e-mail.

The deadline for withdrawal is normally 14 days from the day the contract was entered into. If the landlord, who is a commercial trader, has not given information about the right of withdrawal at the time of entering into the contract, you have 12 months and 14 days from the day you entered into the contract.

If you regret entering into the contract outside any of these cases, the alternative is to give your notice to terminate, or to sub-let if the contract cannot be terminated by giving notice. You are for the most part obligated to pay rent during your notice period.

The Cancellation Act only affords consumers the opportunity to withdraw. This means that the landlord, whether or not it is a commercial landlord or private individual, does not have the opportunity to withdraw from a tenancy agreement.

If the landlord wants to end the tenancy, the landlord must either give their notice to terminate the contract, or terminate with immediate effect. There are separate rules for ordinary termination by giving notice and termination with immediate effect from the landlord. You can read more here.