If you’re a tenant in Denmark it’s good to be familiar with the Rent Control Board. This is a dispute settlement body that hear cases involving a dispute between a landlord and a tenant.
If you’re renting an apartment or a room in private housing and there’s a disagreement between you and your landlord concerning your tenancy, the Board will be able to decide such a dispute in accordance with the relevant legislation.
Are you living in public housing, however, and you’d like to file a claim against your landlord in regards to your tenancy, such complaint needs to be submitted to the Tenant Complaint Board (Beboerklagenævnet) instead of the Rent Control Board.
The Rent Control Board can only decide the outcome of the dispute and is not able to provide you nor the landlord with any general counselling. The Board is completely impartial and decides each case objectively in accordance with the relevant legislation and case-law. The Board is, however, not considered a court but instead a tribunal which decides specific matters in relation to lease agreement.
Typically, the Rent Control Board decides disputes concerning:
- The rent-level
- The size and repayment of the deposit
- Rent increases
- Maintenance issues
- Utility bills (e.g. for heating, electricity and water)
As a tenant you may need specific guidance in relation to your lease. If so, it might be a good idea to contact the Danish Tenants Organisation (Lejernes Landsorganisation (LLO)) or any other associations for tenants.
Further down the page you can read more about how Rent Guide might be able to help you if you believe you’re paying too much in rent.
There’s a Rent Control Board in every municipality – From Copenhagen to Aalborg
As each municipality have an obligation to create a Rent Control Board, you can find one in each municipality no matter where you live. Therefore, as a tenant you’re always assured that the Board have an in-depth knowledge of your local area, regardless of whether it’s in Copenhagen or Aalborg.
The Rent Control Board consist of three experts. There’s the Chairman, who is a legal expert, and two professionals from the rental property business, where one represents the general interests of tenants and the other represents the interests of landlords. Additionally, there’s a legal case-worker who prepares the cases before it’s sent to the Board.
Decisions from the Rent Control Board and the Tenant Complaint Board, which are of significant importance, will be uploaded to the webpage Huslejenævn.dk, since it provides legal certainty for tenants to know that the Board in Århus will make its decision based on the same rationale as the Board in Odense.
Consequently, you’re able get familiar with the current practice on a number of issues in relation to your tenancy regardless of where in the country you live.
How to file a claim to the Rent Control Board
If there’s a dispute between you and the landlord you’re able to file a claim to the Rent Control Board. You’ll need to contact the Board in the municipality in which the apartment or room you’re renting is placed. Do you live in public housing, remember to bring the claim before the Tenant Complaint Board.
However, you need to be aware that the Board do not have jurisdiction to hear all types of cases. For example the Board will not be able to decide matters concerning termination of your lease. Cases that the Rent Control Board cannot hear needs to be filed to the relevant District Court.
If you’d like the Board to decide whether you’ve been paying too much in rent and whether you should get a compensation for overpaid rent, it’s often best to seek out the help from a service like Rent Guide. You can read more about the upsides of having Rent Guide help you further down the page.
If you chose to file a claim with the Rent Control Board you’ll need to do so in writing and you’ll need to attach all relevant documentation such as your lease agreement, relevant correspondence, pictures etc.
You also need to pay a fee of 312 kr. (2019) before the Board is able to accept your case. After that the Board will usually make its decision within 4-6 months. This, however, depends on the individual Board and the complexity of your case. In Copenhagen Municipality there’s even 5 different boards due to the large number of cases.
Can you get your overpaid rent back?
It’s very common that a tenant pays too much in rent for private housing. This is usually due to the fact that it’s difficult to know what rights you have as a tenant.
Luckily, there’s help to find if you’re in the same situation.
If you file a claim within the first year of your lease, and you win the case, you’ll be able to get compensation for overpaid rent from when you moved in. If your move-in date is more than 1 year from the date you file the claim you’ll not be able to receive compensation for the time you’ve already lived there – unless your rent is regulated by certain rules in the Danish legislation. Nevertheless, even if it’s been more than a year from the move-in date you’ll still be able to get the rent lowered for the future and you’ll get a compensation for overpaid rent from when you file the claim and until there’s a final decision in the case.
Both Rent Guide and the Rent Control Board can help you get compensation for overpaid rent. However, Rent Guide will typically be the best choice due to our expertise in rent-level cases.
Rent Guide helps to get a compensation for overpaid rent
At Rent Guide we believe we’re the best at helping you get your rent lowered and receive compensation for overpaid rent. If you chose to file a claim with the Rent Control Board you’ll most likely need to use a considerable amount of time and energy in order to get familiar with the complex legal rules within this field. You’ll also need to pay a fee to the Board and you may be waiting for over 6 months for a decision. All in all you may end up using a lot of resources on the case without actually winning.
If Rent Guide helps you, you don’t have to pay anything to have your case reviewed. All you need to do is hand over all relevant documentation in the case, and after that we’ll take care of everything for you – including all legal questions and issues that may arise in relation to the rent-level case. We’ll also handle all communication with the Rent Control Board, your landlord and your landlord’s lawyers. We make sure that you don’t have to deal with all of that.
It’s completely risk-free having Rent Guide handle your rent-level case. It’s much easier and more convenient than if you had to do everything by yourself. You only need to pay something if we win the case and receive the compensation from your landlord.
Rent Guide is experienced in getting your overpaid rent back. The benefits of having us help you can be summarized as follows:
- It’s easy for you
- You save time
- We know your rights
- You don’t have to face the dispute by yourself
- You only pay if we win the case
- We’ve own more than 95 % of our cases
Would you also like to get the money back you’ve been overpaying in rent? Just get in touch and we’ll be ready to help you out!