Co-tenant and housemate: six months is not the same

Six months means something different for a co-tenant (medehuurder) than for a housemate who is not a co-tenant. The co-tenant continues the tenancy as tenant and does not have to ask the court for permission to stay. That person may give notice within six months after the death, by a bailiff's writ (exploot) or by registered letter, taking effect on the first day of the second month after the notice. Here the six months are a period in which notice can be given, not a period after which the tenancy stops of itself. On the line, record that the status is co-tenant, with the source: the contract, or the statute for a spouse or registered partner. Without that source the status stays open.

The housemate who is not a co-tenant falls under a different sentence of article 7:268 BW. That person must have had their main residence in the home and have kept a lasting shared household with the deceased. The tenancy then continues for six months after the death. If that person wants to stay longer, they must ask the court within those six months. If they do not, that continuation ends with the six months. The request to the court is not the same as the notice a co-tenant can send. This piece does not state the grounds on which the court may refuse a request. Note only whether the request was made, on which date, and what the outcome is once there is one.

A spouse or a registered partner is often already a co-tenant by operation of law, if the home is the main residence. That follows from article 7:266 BW and should not be reinvented in a family story. A girlfriend, a boyfriend, or a child living in the home is not a co-tenant because it feels that way, or because the post seems to be in two names. Co-tenancy outside that statutory position must appear from the contract or from acceptance by the landlord. Until that paper exists, you write housemate, not co-tenant. Ask the landlord which name stands on the records and place that reply with the line. Ervazo keeps the letter and the reply. It does not send them.

In the file, keep two questions apart: is this person a co-tenant, and is a six-month period running for notice or for a request to the court. Do not mix those questions in one note that only says six months. The heirs may end the tenancy as of the end of the first month if no one continues it under article 7:268, and under a statutory distribution (wettelijke verdeling) that power lies with the spouse or the registered partner. That is a third route, not a variant of the housemate. This is not legal advice. Whether the person at this address is a co-tenant is confirmed by the landlord from the contract or the statute. Whether the statutory distribution shifts the power is confirmed by the notary.