How to calculate whether you’re paying a fair rent

Most people don’t know what a ’fair’ rent is when they rent a room or an apartment. However, it is completely understandable that you as a tenant is only willing to pay a fair rent. 

The numbers show that approx. 100.000 kr. tenants in Denmark are paying too much in rent. Most tenants don’t actually know how the rent is calculated to begin with – it just says so in the rent agreement right? 

When your rent is calculated it is determined by a number of factors such as the size and location of the rental unit as well as how old the building of the apartment is. This is where you need to be careful as a tenant in order to make sure that your landlord is not charging you too much. 

What a ‘fair’ rent is, is not easily determined. Until now! Because Rent Guide does actually have a calculator that is able to figure out whether you’re paying too much in rent. 

Calculate your fair rent with Rent Guides calculator

Would you like to know whether you’re paying too much in rent, you can do so by using our simple calculator on our website. With that you can get a better idea of whether or not you pay a fair rent. 

The rent-calculator is really helpful if you’re about to sign a lease, as you’ll be able to check whether you’ll have fair rent. You may, however, have been living in your apartment or room for a while before questioning your rent. Nevertheless, in both situations our calculator will be useful for you to get a better idea of whether your rent is too high. 

When filling out the information for the online rent-calculator please follow this guide:

1. On the front page of www.rentguide.dk you’ll be able to see the calculator by clicking on ‘Check if we can lower your rent’. The first thing you need to do then is to choose whether you’re renting an apartment or a room. 
2. Once you’ve chosen this you’ll need to put in your address, the size of your apartment or room (depending on what you’re renting), your rent and your move-in date and move-out date. 
3. When you write your address, there’ll be a roll-down option where you can choose your address. The size will often appear automatically but if not you can just fill this out manually – just put in the number from your lease. 
4. When filling out your rent, please do so excluding any utilities you may pay (if everything is included in your rent please just put in the entire amount).
5. Finally, you need to chose when your tenancy began – just chose the date that appears from your contract. If your lease is time-limited you also need to fill out your move-out date. If there’s no time-limitation on your lease you can just chose the ‘No time limit’ option. 
6. Next, you’ll need to chose which condition your apartment or room is in; worn down, standard or newly renovated. You also need to check of whether the apartment or room has been furnished by the landlord.
7. Finally, you’ll need to fill out your name and e-mail and create a password.
8. Once you’ve filled out everything please just press ‘Review my case’.

After you’ve pressed ‘review my case’, the calculator will figure out whether you have a case where there’s a good chance of lowering your rent and getting a compensation for overpaid rent.  

Afterwards you’ll be able to see your case-status page, where you can follow the whole process of your case and get updates every time something new happens. You’ll also need to upload your lease here in order for us to continue with your case. Also, you’ll be able to get in contact with us through the chat-function on the page. 

Once everything has been filled out you can safely relax and let us take care of everything concerning the case, including all communication with the Housing Board, the landlord and the landlords lawyers. 

If you’re ever in doubt as to how you create a case or something else concerning your case please contact us either through the chat-function on the case-status page or by e-mail to info@rentguide.dk 

How we calculate your rent

When we calculate your rent we use the different information that you’ve provided when you created the case, i.e. the type, size and location of the rental unit, as these factors influence your rent-level. We calculate whether your rent-level is fair based on whether you’re renting a room or an apartment as well as how old the building is. 

These factors decide how your rent-level is calculated based on the rules regulating rent-level in your commune. These rules are either based on:

• Cost-related rent
• The value of the rented property 
• Free rent determination

Which rules your rent is regulated by may be quite complicated to figure out on your own. The rules depend on different circumstances especially whether your apartment is situated in a regulated commune or not. 

In regards to cost-related rent, this means that the rent is calculated based on what is necessary for the landlord to cover operating costs for the apartment. When Rent Guide calculates your rent we’ll look at whether your apartment is located in a regulated commune where the Act on Temporary Regulation of Housing Conditions applies. If that’s the case we’ll check to see whether the building in which your apartment is placed in is build before 1991. 

If your apartment is in a non-regulated commune, your rent is calculated based on whether it is fair compared to the value of the rented property. In this case your rent needs to be the same as the rent paid for similar rented properties in the area, so that your rent reflects the average rent-level in the area in regards to size, location, condition and facilities. 

If your rent is not calculated based on the rules for cost-related rent or the value of the rented property, the rent will instead be regulated by the rules for free rent determination, which means that the landlord is much more free to determine what is considered to be a fair rent for the rented property.

If our calculator shows that you’re paying too much in rent compared to what the rent should be, you can contact Rent Guide. We’re experts in getting your overpaid rent back from the landlord. 

How Rent Guide can help you get a fair rent 

Once you’ve filled out the necessary information in our calculator and received the message that you’re not paying a fair rent, you should upload all the necessary documentation to the case. This way we’ll be able to assess whether you have a strong case or not. Afterwards, if you’d like for us to continue with the case in order to get a fair rent, you only need to give us the green light to do so. 

After that we’ll get in contact with your landlord and your landlords lawyers and file the case to the Housing Board for you. With our help you avoid having to do all of this on your own, which can often be quite confusion and time-consuming. Instead you can just relax and let us take care of everything for you. 

How Rent Guide can help you retrieve your overpaid rent

The whole process can be summarized accordingly:

• You calculate your fair rent with our online calculator.
• You’ll be informed whether your rent is too high.
• You upload all of the necessary documentation.
• We’ll then assess whether your case is strong enough to continue with.
• After you’ve signed the necessary documents (power of attorney and document of representation) we can start the process of getting your rent lowered.
• We’ll take care of all the steps in the case for you.
• You’ll receive the compensation (minus our 30 % fee).

Because we’re experts in the relevant legislation we know this area of the law very well. We’re also used to communicating with landlords and lawyers – and some landlords use very large corporate law firms to handle their cases. For some tenants this can, quite understandably, be very difficult and become rather time-consuming.

When you have Rent Guide on your side, it becomes much more easy for you to receive your overpaid rent back. You only have to pay us anything if we win the case for you. Your final compensation will therefore be the overpaid rent from when you moved in or when the case was submitted (depending on how long you’ve lived in the rented property), which we’ll deduct 30 % from. Your rent for the future will be lowered to a fair rent and you don’t have to pay any additional fees to us after you’ve received the compensation. 

Get in touch with us to hear how Rent Guide can help you get your money back!