Renting out your apartment to expats, companies and students

If you rent out to an expat, a company or a student, the same rules apply as for any other tenant. The Rent Act (lejeloven) applies whether the tenant is a person or a company, and also when the tenancy is short and work-related. An end date in the lease must be justified by your circumstances, not the tenant’s, and the deposit and the prepaid rent may each be no more than 3 months’ rent. What is different is the practical side: the lease in English, the payment, the CPR registration and the move-out.

Who are the tenants?

Students and expats often look for a home for a limited period. The company here is an employer renting a home for an employee. That gives three different tenants on the lease and three different ways of assessing the ability to pay.

The tenant	Named as tenant in the lease	Documentation of ability to pay	Especially remember
Expat	The person themselves	The employment contract or a letter from the employer	The lease is needed for the CPR registration
Company	The company	The information in the CVR register (the Danish business register), for example the company’s latest annual report	Write who will live in the home
Student	The student, or all of them if there are several	SU (the Danish student grant), a student job or other regular income	The length of the semester is not a reason for a fixed term

Set the same requirements for all applicants, and only ask for the information you need. What you may ask about is set out in the guide to tenant screening.

The Rent Act applies, also when the tenant is a company

The Rent Act applies to renting a house or rooms, whether the tenant is a person or a company (§ 1(1) of the Rent Act, in Danish). According to the explanatory notes to § 1 (in Danish), this also applies when the company will not live in the home itself but sublet it as a home. The purpose is that a landlord cannot get around the rules on setting the rent by renting out ordinary homes to a company.

Nor is the Act reserved for long tenancies. Letting for holiday and leisure purposes is exempt (§ 1(3)), but the notes say directly that short-term letting for work or a posting is covered. A consultant who will live in your apartment for four months is therefore a tenant with the rights of the Rent Act. The rent follows the ordinary rules, which you can read about in the article on rent adjustment. If the home is to be furnished, also read about renting out a furnished apartment.

Fixed-term or open-ended lease?

It is tempting to write an end date in the lease when the tenant will only be here for a while. But a fixed term only holds if it is justified by your circumstances as the landlord (§ 173(3)). According to the explanatory notes to § 173, it can be set aside if the reason lies with the tenant and not with the landlord. That an expat has a two-year contract with their employer, or that a student will only study here for a semester, is therefore not enough. You have two options:

• If you have a reason yourself, for example that you are posted abroad and will move back, or that you want to sell the home later, you can rent out for a fixed term. Write the end date and the reason in § 11 of the lease. Read about fixed-term leases and about renting out temporarily.
• If you have no reason, rent out without an end date. The tenant can give 3 months’ notice unless otherwise agreed, and you can only give notice under §§ 170 and 171 of the Rent Act (standard form A, § 2). You can agree that the tenant cannot give notice for a period (§ 169(1)). If the tenant moves out anyway during that period, the tenant must as a rule pay rent until the period has expired, but you must try to re-let the home (the explanatory notes to § 173 and § 175(3)).

When the tenant is a company

In a company lease, the company is the tenant and pays the rent, while an employee lives in the home. Write the company’s name and address in the tenant field, preferably with the CVR number, and write in the lease that the home will be occupied by the company’s employee, and who that is. The tenancy runs with the company as the tenant until notice is given, even if the employee moves out earlier.

• Look the company up in the CVR register, and get confirmation that the person signing may bind the company.
• Agree whether the company may let another employee move in if the first one moves out.
• The deposit and prepaid rent follow the ordinary caps of at most 3 months’ rent each (§ 59), and the rules cannot be departed from to the tenant’s detriment (§ 64).
• Send notices to the company as the tenant. Your demand for payment and your notice of termination must be sent on paper (§ 13(2)).
• If the company needs an invoice, remember that letting a whole, self-contained home is exempt from VAT, however short the rental period (the Danish Tax Agency, in Danish).

When the tenant is a student

If the applicant has no payslips, ask for documentation of SU, a student job or other regular income, and set the same requirements for everyone. The student can give the usual 3 months’ notice unless you have agreed otherwise. If you want an end date at the end of the semester, it must still be justified by your circumstances.

If several students are to share the apartment, rent it out on one lease where they are all named as tenants. Renting out the rooms separately in an apartment you do not live in yourself requires the municipality’s consent. A home that is designated as a permanent home in a local plan or has previously been rented out as a residential apartment may not be rented out as single rooms without consent (§ 4(2) of the Housing Conditions Act (lov om boligforhold), in Danish). If there are several tenants, for example a request to move out when a fixed rental period has expired must be given to all of them (the explanatory notes to § 173).

If the student comes from abroad, the same applies as for expats below. The students themselves can read our guide to finding a home in Copenhagen before term starts.

A lease in English

Since 1 February 2025, there has been an authorised English version of the standard lease, standard form A, 10th edition (ENG). Whichever of you draws up the lease chooses between the Danish and the English version, and if you use the English one, all fields must be filled in in English. The English version can only be used for tenancies entered into after 1 February 2025 (Executive Order no. 77 of 29 January 2025, in Danish, §§ 1, 3 and 6).

Use the authorised version rather than a home-made translation. If you use a form that is not authorised, terms that put the tenant in a worse position than the law are invalid (§ 14(3) of the Rent Act). The tenancy follows the same Danish Rent Act, whatever the language. You can download both versions on the page with the free lease agreement, and how to fill in the lease is explained in the article on standard form A10. It is a good idea to write the move-in report and a short guide to the home in English too. The tenant has 2 weeks from the start of the tenancy to report defects (§ 91), and that is easier when the tenant can read the report.

The practical side: CPR, payment and moving out

The lease is needed for the CPR registration

To be registered in the CPR, a foreign national must have a place to live and plan to stay in Denmark for more than three consecutive months. International House Copenhagen asks for documentation of the home, and if you rent, that is the lease. All pages must be included, and the lease must be filled in with the full address, dated and signed (International House Copenhagen). The application for CPR registration can be submitted no earlier than four weeks before arrival (International House Copenhagen), and according to International House’s step-by-step guide, processing can take 2-3 weeks. A CPR number can only be obtained after arrival, and MitID can be applied for in connection with the CPR registration (City of Copenhagen). So send the signed lease in good time, and do not assume that the tenant has a CPR number or MitID when you sign.

Payment from abroad

You must designate an account with a bank in Denmark to which the rent is paid (§ 57). The tenant can transfer from a foreign account, so give the IBAN and BIC of the account. The rent can be required monthly in advance, but never for more than 3 months at a time (§ 58(1) and (3)). In § 4 of the lease, write a date before the move-in by which the deposit and prepaid rent must be paid.

Notices and moving out

Notices during the tenancy can be sent digitally, for example by email, but both you and the tenant can, with 1 month’s notice, demand to receive them on paper (§ 13(1)). Your demand for payment and your notice of termination must always be sent on paper (§ 13(2)). When the tenant moves out, the tenant must, no later than 8 days before moving out, give the address to which notices, including your claims for refurbishment, can be sent (§ 186(2)). This is especially important when the tenant leaves Denmark. At the same time, get an account to which any surplus deposit can be repaid. Read about deposit and prepaid rent.

What to watch out for

• Do not set requirements on ethnicity or nationality in the listing, and do not set different requirements for applicants based on their name, language or ethnic background (City of Copenhagen, in Danish). Feel free to write the listing in both Danish and English.
• Beyond what belongs to the tenancy agreement itself, you may not demand or accept payment from the tenant for getting the home (§ 15). If you use an intermediary, the tenant must not pay for it, the explanatory notes to § 15 say.
• Do not write in an end date that is based only on the tenant’s plans. It can be set aside, and then the tenancy continues with no end date.
• Hold a move-in inspection with photos, including of the furniture if the home is furnished. Read about the move-in inspection.

How we can help

With our long-term rental service, BY Administration advertises your home on our own homes-to-rent page and targets the listing at the tenants who suit the home and the period, for example students or expats. Everyone is screened before they come to a viewing, and you make the final choice. We draw up the lease under the Rent Act, collect the deposit and rent and hold move-in and move-out inspections with written and photographic documentation. The price is 8.5% excl. VAT of the monthly rent, and we rent out homes all over Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. See what your home can earn.

The article is based on the Rent Act as it applies in September 2026. It is general information and not legal advice.

Sources

• Act on Rent (lejeloven), Act no. 341 of 22 March 2022 as amended (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Bill on the Act on Rent (L 47), explanatory notes to §§ 1, 15 and 173 (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Housing Conditions Act (lov om boligforhold), Act no. 342 of 22 March 2022 as amended (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Executive Order no. 77 of 29 January 2025 on authorised standard forms for leases (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Lease for residential use, standard form A, 10th edition, with guide (Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing, in Danish)
• Residential lease, standard form A, 10th edition (ENG), with guide (Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing)
• Proof of accommodation (International House Copenhagen)
• CPR registration (International House Copenhagen)
• Step-by-step guide: CPR registration for non-EU citizens (International House Copenhagen)
• CPR registration (City of Copenhagen)
• Avoid ethnic discrimination in residential letting (City of Copenhagen, in Danish)
• VAT on renting out rooms and homes (Danish Tax Agency, in Danish)