Lower your rent in 2026: check your WWS points and go to the Huurcommissie
Plenty of Dutch rental homes are priced above their legal maximum, and many tenants never check. If your contract started on or after 1 July 2024 and your home scores 186 points or fewer, your rent is capped by law, in 2026 at €1,228.07 for mid-rent homes and €932.93 for social-sector homes. This tutorial walks you through the WWS points check and shows exactly how to request a rent reduction in the Netherlands through the Huurcommissie: the deadlines, the forms, the €25 fee, the refund mechanics, and what happens after the ruling.
Could you be overpaying on rent?
Quite possibly. If you signed your contract on or after 1 July 2024 and your home scores 186 points or fewer under the Dutch points system, your rent is capped by law. In 2026 that cap is €1,228.07 per month at 186 points and €932.93 at 143 points (Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2026).
This guide is the action plan. If you first want the background, why these rules exist and what the Huurcommissie actually is, read how the Affordable Rent Act works. Here we stick to the practical part: checking your score, comparing it to your rent, and filing the right request at the right time.
One quick self-test before anything else: does your contract mention a point score at all? Since 1 January 2025 landlords must include it in every new contract. If yours doesn't, that's your first clue the price may never have been properly justified.
The tutorial covers both situations you can be in. There's a strong six-month route with retroactive refunds, and a forward-only route for everyone past that window. Grab your contract and 15 minutes; that's genuinely all step one takes.
Step 1: how do you find your WWS point score?
Your contract is the fastest route. Landlords must include an official point statement in every contract signed since 1 January 2025, and skipping it can cost them a fine of up to €25,750 under the Wet goed verhuurderschap (Huurcommissie, 2024).
No statement, or an older contract? Run the free Huurprijscheck on huurcommissie.nl yourself. You answer questions about the home, and the tool produces a PDF with your point total and the maximum legal rent. Keep that PDF safe: it becomes your main piece of evidence later.
What earns points? Square metres do most of the work, followed by the WOZ value, which is capped at 33% of the total score for most homes (Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2026). A good energy label adds points, while labels E, F and G subtract them. Kitchen and bathroom quality count too, and a home with no outdoor space at all loses 5 points.
Step 2: is your rent above the legal maximum?
Now compare. In 2026 a home scoring 143 points or fewer has a maximum rent of €932.93, and 144 to 186 points means a cap of €1,228.07 (Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2026). At 187 points or more you're in the free sector, and no maximum applies.
Timing matters as much as the score. The mid-rent regulation only covers contracts signed on or after 1 July 2024; it doesn't work retroactively (Woonbond, 2026). Older contracts can only be re-regulated if the home actually belongs in the social segment and was mispriced from the start (Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2026).
Paying €1,400 for a home that scores 170 points? That's €171.93 too much every single month, over €2,000 per year. Not sure how your rent compares to similar homes in general? Our guide on what's a reasonable rent helps you sanity-check the market side as well.
While you're at it, note the exact start date of your contract. The six-month clock in the next step runs from that date, and it decides whether you can claim money back or only lower your rent going forward.
Step 3: within six months? Test your starting rent
This is the strongest route, so check your calendar first. Within six months of your contract start date you can ask the Huurcommissie for a toetsing aanvangshuurprijs, a review of your starting rent, filed through your account on MijnHuurcommissie (Huurcommissie, 2026).
Why is this route so valuable? Because the correction works retroactively. If the Huurcommissie rules that your rent is too high, the lower rent applies from your contract start date, and you reclaim everything you overpaid directly from your landlord. The Huurcommissie sets the correct rent; collecting the refund is something you arrange yourself.
Filing costs €25 in leges, and you get that back if you win (Huurcommissie, 2026). Build a complete file: the contract, the point statement or your Huurprijscheck PDF, photos and floor plans, plus notes on maintenance defects. Our rental contract checklist helps you gather the paperwork.
Filing itself is straightforward. Log in with DigiD, pick the request type, upload your evidence and pay the fee. Your landlord gets the chance to respond, the Huurcommissie can inspect the home to verify the points, and then the case moves towards a ruling.
Step 4: past six months? You still have options
Missed the six-month window? For contracts signed on or after 1 July 2024 you can still bring your rent down to the legal maximum. The route changes, though: you first propose a rent reduction to your landlord in writing, and you only go to the Huurcommissie if they refuse (Rijksoverheid, 2026).
The trade-off sits in the refund. Outside the six-month window a reduction only applies going forward, from the proposed date onward. The months you already overpaid stay overpaid (Wooninfo, 2026). That's exactly why acting early pays off so much.
Put your proposal in writing, include a proposed start date, and attach your point calculation. If the landlord agrees, you're done without a case. If they refuse or stay silent, file with the Huurcommissie and add the rejected proposal to your evidence.
How long does it take? Legally the Huurcommissie must rule within 90 days after your file is complete (Huurcommissie, 2026). In practice, count on several months from filing to decision, so submit a complete file straight away.
What if your landlord ignores the ruling?
You're not on your own. Since 1 January 2025 municipalities have a legal duty to enforce the maximum rents. If your landlord keeps charging more than the Huurcommissie ruling allows, report it to your gemeente (Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2026).
Enforcement escalates step by step. The gemeente usually starts with a warning, can then impose a dwangsom, a penalty payment that runs until the landlord complies, and can ultimately fine up to €25,750. Landlords who go wrong again within four years face fines up to €103,000 (price level 1 January 2024), and in extreme cases the gemeente can take over management of the property.
Keep paying the corrected rent yourself, save every letter and payment record, and quote the Huurcommissie case number in all communication. A clean paper trail makes the gemeente's job easier and protects you if the dispute ever reaches a court.
What changes in 2027, and why you shouldn't wait
Two things are worth tracking. First, the annual increase caps for 2026: social rents may rise at most 4.1% from 1 July 2026, mid-rent contracts 6.1% and free-sector contracts 4.4% (Rijksoverheid, 2025). A reduction you win now also shrinks the base that every future increase is calculated on.
Second, the rules themselves may shift. On 16 June 2026 the Tweede Kamer approved a package of WWS relaxations, now with the Raad van State and aimed at 1 January 2027 (Wieringa Advocaten, 2026). It includes a surcharge on the WOZ cap, roughly €96 per month in the government's example, and scraps the 5-point deduction for homes without outdoor space.
None of this is law yet, and whether or how it will touch existing situations isn't settled. The practical takeaway: today's rules are the ones you can act on, so run your WWS points check now rather than in 2027.
And if the numbers show your home is simply overpriced for what it offers, searching further can pay off too. Renthaven watches more than 200 Dutch rental sites and alerts you the moment a matching home appears, so you can compare your options without refreshing listings all day.