Cancel lease for higher rent?

Tenants are protected by law. Also business space tenants enjoy a certain degree of rent protection. Nonetheless, the landlord can still change the Lease of business space often easy to terminate. But may that also be to make a higher rent get? This was recently addressed by the Supreme Court (ECLI:NL:HR:2025:1962). This blog discusses the Supreme Court ruling by tenancy law lawyer Myrthe de Vries. She also provides tips to landlords of commercial space on raising rents.

Renting a supermarket in Amsterdam

In 1989, the owners of a building in Amsterdam entered into a lease agreement with Ahold. Because Ahold was going to operate a supermarket in the leased property, this was a lease for so-called 290-company space. The lease was initially entered into for the term of 10 years, with the option to renew the lease each time for a period of 5 years. As of July 1, 2019, the lease was for an indefinite period. The rent at that time was €488,000 per year. The landlord had been in conclave with Ahold for some time about increasing the rent. The parties were not able to reach an agreement on that issue.

Other tenant wants to pay higher price

At some point, a third party approached the landlord and indicated a willingness to pay a rent of €775,000 per year. A conditional lease was therefore signed with that potential tenant. The tenant then made another proposal to Ahold to increase the rent, but Ahold rejected that proposal. The landlord therefore terminated the lease.

But, can the landlord terminate an indefinite lease?

In short: yes you can. Based on article 7:300 paragraph 2 of the Civil Code, the lessor of a lease for an indefinite period of time can terminate this lease. However, the landlord must state the grounds that led to the termination. This is stated in Sections 7:300 (3) and 7:294 of the Dutch Civil Code. Pursuant to Section 7:300 (3) of the DCC, Sections 7:295 through 7:299 of the DCC apply mutatis mutandis to the termination.

Balance of interests leads to termination of lease, but not always...

There (Article 7:296 paragraph 3) provides that the court may grant a claim based on a reasonable weighing of the interests of the landlord in terminating the contract against those of the tenant in extending the contract. In any case, the court will grant that claim if the tenant does not agree to a reasonable offer to enter into a new agreement regarding the leased property. However, that offer may not exclusively include a change in the rent (Article 7:296 paragraph 4 of the Civil Code). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ahold for this reason:

“From the system of the law and from the legislative history (...) it must be inferred that it is not possible to (...) come to a termination of a lease for Art. 7:290 business premises solely to secure a higher rent.”

The landlord's appeal was therefore dismissed. Thus, the landlord cannot terminate the lease to obtain a higher rent.

So how can the landlord raise the rent?

The Supreme Court also touched on what the landlord could have done. To obtain a higher rent, the landlord could have followed the procedure of Section 7:303 of the Civil Code. Under that provision, the rent to be reviewed, if it no longer corresponds to the rent of comparable business premises on site. In addition, it is always wise to check whether the rent is indexed in past years. If that has been forgotten, those indexing often still retroactive.