A Housemate Stops Paying Rent: What You Owe

20 October 2026 · Panagiotis Pelardis

The short answer: if all of you signed one lease, a housemate who stops paying can become your problem, because the landlord's claim may reach every name on the contract. Whether it reaches the whole rent or only your share depends on your lease. Pay your own share on time, by bank transfer. Talk to the landlord early. Get every agreement in writing.

Sources: Juridisch Loket, huurachterstand, Juridisch Loket, uit huis gezet bij huurachterstand, Juridisch Loket, medehuur en samenhuur, Rijksoverheid, huur opzeggen door de verhuurder, Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 6, art. 6:6, 6:7, 6:10 and 6:13 on wetten.overheid.nl. All read 20 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.

First: whose name is on the lease?

• Everyone signed one lease. The Juridisch Loket calls this samenhuur: two or more people are named as tenants, for example friends sharing a house, and together you answer for the agreements in the lease. This post is mostly about this case.
• One person holds the lease and the others rent from them. The landlord's contract is with the person whose name is on it. Our own reading: the landlord looks to that person, and what a subtenant owes the main tenant is a matter between the two of them. Our guide to subletting a room covers the landlord's consent.
• Your name is on nothing. You live on someone else's contract. The Juridisch Loket says that if the main tenant's contract ends, you have to leave too.

Do you owe the whole rent, or your share?

The starting point is in the Civil Code. When two or more people owe one performance, each owes an equal share, unless the law, custom or the contract makes them liable for unequal shares or for the whole, which is called hoofdelijk (BW 6:6). If you are hoofdelijk liable, the landlord can claim the whole amount from any one of you (BW 6:7), and a payment by one of you frees the others toward the landlord.

For friends who simply co-signed, we found no article that makes them hoofdelijk by law; our post on a housemate leaving a joint lease sets out where the law does so for spouses and admitted medehuurders. So read your lease for the word hoofdelijk. If it is not there, do not assume you owe only your share; ask the landlord.

What the landlord can do, and how fast

The Rijksoverheid says a landlord may not simply end a lease; there has to be a good reason, and not paying rent for one or more months is named as one. If you object to a notice, a judge decides and you can stay in the home until then.

The Juridisch Loket describes what a judge usually looks for: the rent unpaid for 3 months or longer, or unpaid for 2 months after arrears earlier in the same year, or paid late again and again. The two pages describe this differently, so treat neither number as a line you can safely stay under.

Before the landlord goes to court, the Juridisch Loket says, the arrears have to be reported to the gemeente so the tenant can get help with debts, and the landlord has to tell the tenant in writing beforehand that this is coming. If that step is skipped, a judge can decide that the landlord may not have the home cleared. If a judge does end the lease, the arrears are still owed, plus the rent until the day you have to leave.

One thing we could not find: any page that says what happens to the other co-tenants' right to stay when the arrears belong to one person. The Juridisch Loket says that samenhuur ends only when all tenants give notice together, which suggests the other tenants keep their position. We did not find that stated for this case. Ask the Juridisch Loket about your own contract.

What to do this week

1. Ask your housemate what is going on, and do it now. The Juridisch Loket's advice to anyone behind on rent is to contact the landlord as early as possible; the same logic applies to the conversation inside the house.
2. Pay your own share on time, by bank transfer. The Juridisch Loket recommends paying through a bank account so you have proof. Keep the statements.
3. Tell the landlord early, in writing. The Juridisch Loket suggests asking for a payment arrangement and getting the agreement in writing (a letter, an email or a text that says how much and when).
4. If you cover your housemate's share, write down that you did and what you expect back. Our own advice. If you are hoofdelijk liable, BW 6:10 gives the one who paid more than their part a claim on the others for the excess, each up to their part, and BW 6:13 spreads a shortfall from one who cannot pay over the rest. Collecting from someone who has stopped paying is another matter.
5. Ask the Juridisch Loket before you sign anything that changes who owes what.

Settle it before anyone signs

The cheapest moment to decide what happens when one person stops paying is before the lease exists. Three questions, one conversation, written down between yourselves (a house agreement binds only the people who sign it and cannot change the lease; see our house rules and agreement template):

• Who pays the landlord, and how do the others pay that person?
• At what point does the house talk to the landlord together?
• What happens to a person's share if they leave, as in a housemate leaving the joint lease?

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 they live, when they get up, how they feel about guests. It has no field for rent, address or availability. It is free in beta. Join the waitlist for Roommates.

For rooms that appear on 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 on your behalf, and there is no verification badge on Vond. A profile here deserves the same care as one anywhere else.

The short version

On a shared lease, one person's unpaid rent can become everyone's. Check the lease for hoofdelijk, pay your own share by bank transfer, tell the landlord early and keep it in writing.