The letter about the maximum rent increase 2026 went out, and now the same three questions are coming in

It's mid June, the letters about the maximum rent increase 2026 went out a few weeks ago, and you can feel it in your inbox. Not as one big complaint, but as a steady stream of the same questions. One person wants to know whether that percentage is even allowed. Another hears that the neighbours upstairs pay ten euros more and asks why that is. And someone else read somewhere that they can still object and wants to know by when. Your colleague is typing out the fifth answer of the morning, and it's only Tuesday.

That wave isn't a sign that your letter was unclear. It comes around every year around 1 July, because the rent increase is the one moment when all your tenants find something in their letterbox at the same time that has money attached to it. People only react once it affects them, and then they want to hear the answer from a person, not dig it out of an enclosed explanation. That's why an even clearer letter won't solve it either. What does work: recognising that the questions are the same three every year, and having your answer ready before the stream starts.

Question one: is this really the maximum rent increase 2026?

This is the question that comes in most often, and the answer depends on the type of property. According to de Rijksoverheid, a social housing rental may increase by a maximum of 4.1% as of 1 July, while the ceiling for mid-market rent (middenhuur) is 6.1% and for the free sector (vrije sector) 4.4%. Three segments, three ceilings, and that is exactly where the confusion arises: a tenant who reads 4.4% online while their own increase is 4.1% quickly thinks something is wrong. Social housing also has a floor: for a net rent under 350 euros, you may increase by a maximum of 25 euros instead of the percentage. The answer that reassures a tenant isn't "yes, that's allowed", but "in your segment, this is the legal maximum, and you're exactly at it". That difference decides whether the phone call ends or carries on.

Question two: why does the neighbour pay more?

Two similar flats, two different letters. To the tenant, that feels like arbitrariness, and without an explanation, in their eyes, it is. The cause is the income-dependent rent increase. According to de Huurcommissie (the Dutch rent tribunal), for an independent social housing rental you may charge a higher income extra: a maximum of 50 euros for a higher middle income and a maximum of 100 euros for a higher income, instead of the percentage. The thresholds are based on income from 2024 and differ for single- and multi-person households. That isn't a detail you improvise over the phone. If you can show, case by case, which income category the property falls into, the conversation shifts from "you're just making this up" to "this follows from the law, and this is how it's worked out".

Question three: is there anything I can still do?

The tenant asking this is usually not yet angry, just looking for some grip on the situation. An honest answer serves you better here than an evasive one. A tenant can object to you as the landlord up until the start date, so before 1 July, and de Huurcommissie provides a model letter for this. Important to know, and to explain: with the standard increase up to 4.1% or 25 euros, a tenant cannot object on the basis of their income, while under the income-dependent increase this is possible under certain conditions, for example if their income fell in 2025. De Woonbond (the Dutch tenants' association) has a rent increase check that lets a tenant work out for themselves whether an objection makes sense. Feel free to point them to it: a tenant who establishes on their own that the increase is correct won't call you again afterwards.

The pattern you already know a year in advance

What's striking about these three questions is that they never change. Next year the percentages will be different, but the questions are identical: is this allowed, why the neighbour, and can I do anything about it. That makes them the opposite of a surprise. You can prepare a short, fixed answer for each of the three, with the right figure and the right source link built in, and attach that as a short FAQ to your standard acknowledgement of receipt. Then your colleague's reply becomes a two-line confirmation with a reference, instead of the same explanation all over again every morning. The time saved isn't in typing faster once the question comes in, but in having it ready before the letter goes out. In the week after 1 July, you'll notice that difference on your phone.