House Rules and Housemate Agreement: A Free Template
The short answer: a house agreement is a written agreement between the people who live in a house. It cannot change your lease, what you owe the landlord, or who is allowed to live in the home. Inside those limits it covers five topics: money, cleaning, noise, guests and leaving. The template below is ours; the limits come from the law and your lease.
Sources: Burgerlijk Wetboek art. 7:213, 7:214, 7:244, 6:6, 6:7 and 6:10 and Wet BRP art. 2.38 and 2.39, all read 12 October 2026; Juridisch Loket on joint leases and Volkshuisvesting Nederland on the Wet goed verhuurderschap, read 11 and 12 October 2026. The template itself is our own advice, not a rule. General information, not legal advice.
| Question | Short answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Can a house rule allow what the lease forbids? | No: a tenant may only use the home as agreed with the landlord | art. 7:214 BW |
| Does the agreement change what I owe the landlord? | No: that follows from the lease and the law | art. 6:6, 6:7 and 6:10 BW |
| Can one of us leave a joint lease by telling the others? | No: a joint lease ends when all tenants give notice | Juridisch Loket |
| Can the house let someone move in or sublet? | A room: only with the landlord's consent. Part of a self-contained home you live in: yes, unless your lease excludes it | art. 7:244 BW |
| Does the landlord have to tell us the rules of the home? | The landlord must tell you in writing that you may only use the home as agreed | Volkshuisvesting Nederland |
What no house agreement can change
Read this before you write a single rule. The agreement is between you; the landlord never signed it.
- What you owe the landlord. The rent split in your agreement is between housemates. What each of you owes the landlord comes from the lease and the law: unless the law, custom or the lease says otherwise, several debtors owe equal shares, and if you are jointly and severally liable (hoofdelijk), the landlord can claim the whole amount from any one of you (BW 6:6 and 6:7). Do not assume you owe only your share: look for the word hoofdelijk in your lease. Whether yours has it is in when a housemate leaves the joint lease. Who owes whom afterwards is then for your agreement to settle between you (BW 6:10).
- What the lease allows. A tenant may only use the home as agreed with the landlord (BW 7:214) and has to behave as a good tenant in how they use it (BW 7:213). The landlord has to tell you this in writing (Volkshuisvesting Nederland). A house rule that allows something the lease does not, such as a pet, smoking or a business at home, is a rule between you, and the landlord can still object.
- Who lives there. A tenant of a room may not give it to someone else without the landlord's consent. A tenant of a self-contained home who lives in it may let out part of it, never the whole, and the lease can exclude even that (BW 7:244). If you rent only a room, or your lease excludes it, ask the landlord in writing before a housemate you invite for a semester moves in. A replacement for someone on a joint lease is a different question: they join the lease only if the landlord agrees, unless your lease has a coöptatie clause that lets the remaining tenants choose. Our guide to subletting covers the sublet side and when a housemate leaves the joint lease the replacement side.
- Leaving. On a joint lease the contract ends only when all tenants give notice; one of you can ask the landlord to leave alone, but needs the others' consent, and the landlord does not have to agree (Juridisch Loket).
- Registration. Everyone who lives there registers at the address where they live, within five days (Wet BRP, art. 2.38 and 2.39). A house rule that says nobody registers does not change that. How many people can live at one address is in our guide to registration.
- The deposit. It sits between the landlord and the tenants on the lease. The law caps it at two months' basic rent on contracts from 1 July 2023 (Volkshuisvesting Nederland); who gets what back among you is your own agreement.
The template
Copy this into your group chat or a shared document, fill in the brackets, and have everyone confirm in writing.
House agreement, [address], [date]
Signed by: [names]. Review on: [date, three months from now].
1. The lease. Our lease is [joint / separate leases per room / one of us is the main tenant and the rest rent from them]. We have each read it, and we follow what it says about pets, smoking, noise and guests. Where this agreement and the lease disagree, the lease wins.
2. Money. Rent is split [equally / by room size]. Each of us pays our share to [name] by the [day] of the month, and [name] pays the landlord by the [day]. Bills are listed below, with the name on each contract. Shared groceries and cleaning supplies: [how].
Bill Name on the contract Split Energy [ ] [ ] Water [ ] [ ] Internet [ ] [ ] Waste levy and other local charges, if the landlord passes them on [ ] [ ] 3. Cleaning. Shared rooms are cleaned on a rota: [rota or app]. If you cannot do your turn, you swap with someone before the day.
4. Noise. Quiet from [time] to [time] on weekdays and from [time] to [time] on weekends. Parties: tell the house [number] days ahead.
5. Guests. A guest can stay [number] nights a week without asking. More than that, or anyone staying more than [number] nights in a row, needs everyone's yes. A guest is not a housemate: they do not get a key and do not use the bathroom unannounced. A guest does not live here, so they stay registered where they live; whoever starts living here registers within five days.
6. Shared things. Food and drink are ours unless marked. Personal things stay personal. Shared items we buy together are listed in [document]. The one who leaves takes their own things, and we divide the shared ones by [how].
7. Decisions. We decide together on [new housemate, big purchases, changes to these rules]. We decide by [majority / everyone agreeing / one veto per person].
8. Someone leaves. They tell the house at least [number] weeks ahead, in writing, and help find a replacement. The house proposes who, by [the same rule as point 7]; on a joint lease the landlord has to agree before anyone joins it, unless our lease lets us choose. The leaver stays responsible for rent and bills under a joint lease until the landlord has agreed that they are off the lease, and we ask for that in writing. The deposit is settled by [how]. The yearly energy settlement is settled before the one whose name is on the contract leaves.
9. Problems. First we talk to each other, in person, within [number] days. If that does not work, we ask [a housemate we all trust / the landlord / the Juridisch Loket for advice on the lease]. We tell each other before we go to the landlord, except for a defect, a safety problem or anything the landlord does: anyone can report those at once. Each of us can contact the landlord, the gemeente or the Juridisch Loket at any time; this agreement does not change that.
10. Review. We read this again on [date] and change what does not work.
Notes on the clauses
The leaver clause (8) is the one that touches your lease. It borrows its structure from the questions in when a housemate leaves the joint lease: who finds the replacement, how long they have, who decides, and what the leaver owes until the landlord agrees. The sentence about staying responsible follows the Juridisch Loket: while your name is on the lease you are a tenant and keep to it, for example by paying the rent. Asking the landlord to confirm in writing is our advice.
The guest clause (5) is yours to tune. The numbers are examples. A guest who stays long enough to live there is, in practice, a housemate; the points above on subletting and registration then apply.
Quiet hours (4) are the house's own. Whatever you agree, check your lease and the gemeente's local rules on noise before you plan a party.
Where Vond fits
We start with Roommates. Vond opens soon in Utrecht, and the first thing that opens is a way to find people to live with.
A Roommates profile describes a person: how you live, when you get up, how you feel about guests. It carries no price, no address and no availability: a profile has no field for any of them. It is free in beta. A house cannot use it to fill a free room.
For rooms that come onto Vond, we speak to whoever is letting the place and build the listing with them. We do not verify identity, we do not check a register, and there is no verification badge on Vond, so read every profile with the care you would give a stranger's message anywhere else.
The waitlist is at vond.house.
The short version
Write it down before the first bill. It is an agreement between housemates and changes nothing in your lease. Put the money, the cleaning, the noise, the guests and the leaver rule in it, agree how you change it, and read it again in three months.