Retroactive rent increase: What to do?

Questioner

Can I increase the rent retroactively up to 3 years back? Since 2011 I have been renting an apartment through a liberalized rental contract. The contract contains the following clause: ' The rental price can be adjusted by lessor for the first time on July 1st 2012 and subsequently every year with a percentage of maximum the legally allowed percentage as is annually determined by the Ministry of BZK, or in the case of decontrolled rent, as is determined by the Dutch Central Statistics office (CBS). The lessor is entitled to apply on top of this additional rental increase of maximum 2%. This will be communicated to the lessee at the latest in the month of June of each year. The adjusted rent based on the percentage determined by BZK will be in accordance with the following formula. The formula is a fraction in which the numerator consists of the index number of the month 4 months before the adjusted rental price will take effect and the denominator consist of the index numberr of the month 16 months before the adjusted rental price will take effect. The rental price can never be lower than the present rental price.' Of course this happened in the month of June. Does it still apply that the rent can be claimed back up to 5 years according to the CBS formula, assuming that this happens in the month of June?

Lawyer

No, you cannot simply increase your rent retroactively. There has already been a ruling in this that prohibits the rent from increasing so much at once. You will then have to implement this step by step. You must also observe the legal provisions that you may only increase the rent once a year and that you must have sent a rental proposal to the tenant two months before it takes effect. So that they can object to it if necessary. If you would like further help and/or advice, you can always contact me.