If you rent premises for a restaurant, café, takeaway or hotel, the tenant protection for business premises applies. The lease runs for five years and is then extended by five years automatically. The landlord can only terminate for a reason set out in the law, and if you disagree, a court decides.
If you sell your business, the buyer does not have to negotiate the lease again. You can ask a court to put the buyer in your place as tenant, even if the landlord does not cooperate. The court then checks whether the buyer can pay the rent and run the business properly.
In short
- Restaurant, café, takeaway and hotel fall under tenant protection: five plus five years, and the landlord can only terminate for a legal reason. A flat above the business that belongs to it falls under the same rules.
- In the meantime the rent only rises as the lease says, often with the CBS price index. After the agreed term a court can review the rent. Improvements you paid for yourself do not count towards a higher rent.
- If you sell the business, a court can accept the buyer as the new tenant. The lease cannot exclude that right. Arrange it before the sale is completed, and do not forget the buyer's permits.
In this article
- Do your hospitality premises fall under tenant protection?
- How long does the lease run, and when can the landlord terminate?
- How may the rent of your hospitality premises rise?
- Can you transfer the lease when you sell your business?
- Why is transferring the lease so important in hospitality?
- What else does the buyer of your business need to arrange?
- What happens if the landlord sells the building or ends the lease?
Do your hospitality premises fall under tenant protection?
Yes, if you rent a restaurant, café, takeaway or hotel. The law mentions premises for a restaurant or café business and for a takeaway or delivery service, if there is a room that is open to the public. Premises for a hotel business are named separately (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 290, paragraph 2).
Ondernemersplein, the government website for businesses, calls such premises retail business premises, with shops, hospitality venues and hotels as examples (Ondernemersplein, renting business premises). A catering kitchen where no guests come has no room open to the public. This protection probably does not apply there, and what the lease says matters most.
Do you live above your business? The law counts a home that belongs to the business premises and depends on it as part of those premises (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 290, paragraph 3). So such a home follows the rules of the business, also if you sell or close the business.
The lease may not deviate from these rules if that is worse for you as the tenant. Such a deviation only holds if a court has approved it (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 291).
How long does the lease run, and when can the landlord terminate?
The lease applies for five years, or longer if you agree on that. After that it is extended by five years automatically (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 292). Notice can only be given for the end of a term, by registered letter or through a bailiff, with at least one year's notice (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 293).
A notice from the landlord without a reason is void, so it has no effect (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 294). If you do not agree in writing within six weeks, the landlord has to go to court. Until the court makes a final decision, the lease continues (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 295).
After the first five years the landlord has only two reasons. You have not run the business the way a good tenant should, or the landlord or a close relative wants to use the premises themselves on a lasting basis and urgently needs them. After ten years the court weighs the interests of both sides (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 296).
Take care with a short lease. With a lease of two years or less this protection does not apply. If you stay longer than two years, a five-year lease applies automatically, minus the two years already passed (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 301).
How may the rent of your hospitality premises rise?
During the lease only as the lease says. Often this is an annual increase in line with the consumer price index of CBS, Statistics Netherlands. There is no legal maximum for such an increase (Ondernemersplein, renting business premises).
A worked example. If you pay € 3,500 rent per month and the index rises by 2.5%, the rent becomes € 3,587.50 per month. That is € 1,050 more per year. The percentage is an example, the real increase follows from the index in your lease.
After the agreed term, you and the landlord can ask a court to set the rent again, if it does not match comparable business premises in the area. The court looks at the average of rents in the five years before (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 303). The claim must include advice from an expert (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 304).
A hospitality business often invests in the premises itself, for example in an extraction system, a cold store or a new bar. The court rejects a higher rent based on improvements you paid for yourself (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 303, paragraph 3). So keep the invoices for everything you have installed in the premises.
Can you transfer the lease when you sell your business?
Yes. If you want to transfer your business to a buyer, you can ask a court to allow you to put that buyer in your place as tenant (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 307, paragraph 1). This is called indeplaatsstelling, substitution of the tenant. If the landlord cooperates, the court is not needed (Ondernemersplein, substitution of the tenant).
The court sets two requirements. You must have a substantial interest in the sale, so a serious reason. And the court always refuses if the buyer does not offer enough assurance of fully complying with the lease and running the business properly. The court can also attach conditions (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 307, paragraphs 2 and 3).
Ondernemersplein describes the practical side. The buyer continues the same type of business and shows they can pay the rent, for example with a bank guarantee. Afterwards substitution is often no longer possible (Ondernemersplein, substitution of the tenant). So arrange it before the sale is completed.
The lease cannot take this right away. For other rules a court can approve a deviation in the lease, but not for substitution of the tenant (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 291, paragraph 2). So you can always challenge a clause that rules out transferring the business together with the lease.
For the buyer the lease continues on the same terms. So they do not have to negotiate the rent again (KVK, renting business premises). The downside is that they are not entitled to the full term of tenant protection, because the previous owner's lease continues (Ondernemersplein, substitution of the tenant).
Why is transferring the lease so important in hospitality?
Because hospitality businesses often change owners or close. Researchers followed 2,439 restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, in the United States, from 1996 to 1999. In the first year 26.16% changed owner or closed. After three years the total was 59.74% (Parsa and others, 2005).
The study counted both a sale to a new owner and a closure as a turnover. For independent restaurants it was 61.36% after three years, for chains 57.22% (Parsa and others, 2005). These are American figures from the 1990s, not a Dutch probability for your business.
The figures do show how often a business changes hands within a few years. A five-year lease that you cannot terminate in the meantime is then a big commitment. Being able to sell the lease along with the business makes that commitment smaller.
What else does the buyer of your business need to arrange?
Above all the permits. The alcohol licence states the licence holder and has an annex listing the managers (Alcohol Act, article 29). A buyer who continues the business therefore usually needs their own licence, with their own managers who meet the requirements (Alcohol Act, article 8).
Anyone who takes over a hospitality business also needs an operating licence in many municipalities (Ondernemersplein, operating licence for a hospitality business). With those applications the municipality can carry out a Bibob screening, including into the buyer and their business relations (Ondernemersplein, Bibob integrity screening).
So agree in the purchase agreement that the sale only goes ahead once the lease and the permits are arranged. This prevents the buyer from having paid for the business without being allowed to open, or you from still being the tenant of premises you no longer use.
What happens if the landlord sells the building or ends the lease?
If the landlord sells the building, your lease simply continues. The landlord's rights and obligations pass to the new owner (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 226). For the lease of a building, the lease may not deviate from this.
If you do have to leave after a court ruling, the court can make the landlord contribute to your moving and fitting-out costs (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 297). For a hospitality business with its own kitchen and bar, those costs can be high.
If the landlord terminates and a similar business moves into the premises within a year, the landlord may benefit from that. You can then claim fair compensation, meaning a reasonable amount. Benefit from the location or nature of the premises does not count (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, article 308).
Sources
- Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek), Book 7, Title 4, Section 6, Lease of business premises (articles 290 to 310), text in force from 8 October 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek), Book 7, article 226, text in force from 8 October 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Ondernemersplein (RVO), Renting business premises (Bedrijfsruimte huren), accessed 29 October 2026. ondernemersplein.overheid.nl
- Ondernemersplein (RVO), Taking over a lease by substitution of the tenant (Huurcontract overnemen met indeplaatsstelling), accessed 29 October 2026. ondernemersplein.overheid.nl
- KVK, Renting business premises (Bedrijfsruimte huren: hoe zit dat?), updated 23 July 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. kvk.nl
- Alcohol Act (Alcoholwet), articles 8 and 29, text in force from 12 February 2025, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Ondernemersplein (RVO), Applying for an operating licence for a hospitality business (Exploitatievergunning horecabedrijf aanvragen), checked 10 July 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. ondernemersplein.overheid.nl
- Ondernemersplein (RVO), Bibob integrity screening (Integriteitsscreening Wet Bibob), checked 10 July 2025, accessed 29 October 2026. ondernemersplein.overheid.nl
- Parsa, H.G., Self, J.T., Njite, D. and King, T. (2005). Why restaurants fail. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 46(3), 304-322. doi.org