Subletting your rental home: the rules when you sublet your apartment

Yes. As the tenant of a private rental home, you have the right to sublet up to half of the habitable rooms while you live there yourself, and the whole apartment for up to 2 years if you are temporarily away, for example because of studies, illness or work. The landlord can refuse subletting of the whole apartment, for example if the property has fewer than 13 residential apartments. The sublease must be in writing, and the landlord must have a copy before the subletting begins (§§ 157 and 158 of the Danish Rent Act, lejeloven (in Danish)).

May you sublet your rental home?

The starting point is no: you may not let anyone other than your household use the apartment or part of it without the landlord’s consent. The Act does, however, make two exceptions, namely subletting rooms and subletting the whole apartment during a temporary absence (§ 150, stk. 2, and §§ 157-158). You cannot waive these, so a term in your lease saying you may never sublet does not change your rights under those two sections (§ 168).

Subletting is when you as the tenant let the apartment, in whole or in part, on to someone else, as the ministry’s guidance to standard form A (typeformular A) (in Danish) describes it. You are still the tenant in relation to your landlord, and the subtenant has no contract with the owner of the property.

	Rooms (§ 157)	The whole apartment (§ 158)
When	While you live in the apartment yourself	When you are temporarily away
How much	Up to half of the habitable rooms	The whole apartment, if it is let solely for residential use
How long	The Act sets no time limit	At most 2 years
Can the landlord say no?	Not when the rules on rooms and occupants are met	Yes, in three cases
Written agreement and a copy to the landlord before the start	Yes	Yes

The rules apply to private rental homes. Social housing (almene boliger) has its own Act (§ 2, stk. 3). If you have a co-op apartment (andelsbolig), the association’s articles decide, see rent out a co-op apartment, and if you own your apartment, it is not subletting but ordinary letting, see rent out temporarily.

Subletting the whole apartment for up to 2 years

If your apartment is let solely for residential use, you have the right to sublet it for up to 2 years when your absence is temporary and due to illness, a business trip, studies, a temporary transfer or similar (§ 158, stk. 1).

Temporary means that the absence is tied to a specific period. If you are away to find out whether you want to move for good, it is not a temporary absence, writes the Ministry of Social Affairs (Socialministeriet) (in Danish). So if you move in with a partner and keep the apartment just in case, that is not covered. A semester abroad or a job in another city for a limited period can be.

Write to the landlord in good time, stating why you are away, for how long and when you will be back. That makes it easy to show that the absence is temporary. If you are going abroad, also read about leaving Denmark and the civil registry (folkeregisteret) in our guide to renting out while on exchange.

When can the landlord say no?

You do not need the landlord’s permission to sublet under § 158, but the landlord can object to the subletting when one of these conditions is met (§ 158, stk. 2):

1. The property has fewer than 13 residential apartments.
2. More people will live in the apartment than there are habitable rooms.
3. The landlord otherwise has a reasonable cause to object to the subletting.

The Act does not list what counts as a reasonable cause. If you disagree about whether you may sublet, it is not the Rent Tribunal (huslejenævnet) that decides. Questions about letting others use the tenancy, for example by subletting, belong to the Housing Court (boligretten), writes the City of Copenhagen (in Danish).

If you are married and the apartment is your shared home, you may not sublet without your spouse’s consent if the home can then no longer be your shared home. If your spouse refuses without reasonable cause, the Agency of Family Law (Familieretshuset) can give permission (§ 160).

Sublease and a copy to the landlord before the subletting begins

The sublease must be in writing, and you must send a copy to your landlord before the subletting period begins. This applies both when you sublet a room and when you sublet the whole apartment (§ 157, stk. 3, and § 158, stk. 3).

You can use the authorised lease, standard form A, 10th edition. The guidance says it can also be used for subletting, and in § 1 of the lease you tick that the tenancy is a sublease. Get it on the page with the free lease agreement, and see how to fill in standard form A10. You write special terms in § 11 of the lease, for example:

• the period and the reason you are away, so the subletting ends when you come home. Read about fixed-term leases
• a list of furniture and fittings the subtenant may use
• who the subtenant should contact while you are away

If you only rent out one home, you have no duty to hold move-in and move-out inspections (§§ 90 and 187, stk. 3). Go through the apartment with the subtenant anyway, and write down its condition and take photos, so you can both prove what it looked like. If you want to claim for refurbishment when the subtenant moves out, the claim must be made no later than 2 weeks after the moving-out date (§ 187, stk. 2). See what a good move-in inspection includes.

Rent, deposit and your liability as the sublandlord

The Rent Act also applies to subletting (§ 1, stk. 1). So the subtenant can have the rent reviewed by the Rent Tribunal just like other tenants. Read about the Rent Tribunal in Copenhagen.

Deposit and prepaid rent

You can require a deposit of at most 3 months’ rent and prepaid rent for at most 3 months, but no more than the rent for the notice period (§ 59, stk. 1 and 3). In a sublease, the subtenant can instead choose to provide a bank guarantee or pay the amount into a separate escrow account, both when the agreement is made and later (§ 59, stk. 2).

When the subletting ends, you have 6 weeks to make the final settlement and pay back any surplus deposit and prepaid rent. If the case has been brought before the Rent Tribunal, the 6 weeks run from the tribunal’s final decision. If you miss the deadline, you can be fined (§ 62, stk. 2).

Your liability to the landlord

Your own lease applies unchanged while you sublet. You are liable for damage the subtenant causes through careless behaviour, and you are responsible for the subtenant keeping the house rules and using the apartment responsibly (§ 159). Utilities and on-account payments (aconto) also continue in your name, so agree in the lease how the subtenant pays their share (aconto is in § 3 of the lease). The cost of heating may only be included in the rent when you sublet a single room (§ 65). Read about the heating bill in your rental home.

If the Rent Tribunal makes a decision that requires something of you in the sublease, you must comply with it. If you do not do so by the deadline, the subtenant must notify the tribunal, and if you cannot document within 7 days of the tribunal’s request that the decision has been complied with, the tribunal notifies your landlord (Housing Conditions Act (lov om boligforhold) § 86, stk. 6-8 (in Danish)). If the landlord has received such a notice two or more times, the landlord can give you notice to terminate your lease (§ 171, stk. 1, nr. 5, of the Rent Act).

Unlawful subletting: what do you risk?

If you sublet without having the right to do so, you are letting others use the apartment without consent (§ 150, stk. 2). This can, for example, be when you:

• sublet the whole apartment even though you are not temporarily away
• sublet for more than 2 years
• sublet more than half of the habitable rooms while you live there yourself
• let more people live there than there are habitable rooms
• sublet the whole apartment even though the landlord has rightly objected

The landlord can terminate the lease when you let someone else use the apartment without being entitled to, and do not bring it to an end after the landlord has objected (§ 182, stk. 1, nr. 6). Then you are left without a home, and so is your subtenant, because a sublease lapses when the main lease ends, writes the Ministry of Social Affairs. If you put things right when the landlord objects, the condition for terminating under that provision is not met.

A room and tax

If you stay living there yourself and rent out a room, that is also subletting. You may rent out up to half of the habitable rooms, and no more people may live in the apartment than there are habitable rooms (§ 157, stk. 1). The rules on rent, deposit and notice for rooms are in the guide to renting out a room.

The rental income is taxable, but you only pay tax on the part that exceeds your deduction. If you sublet to the same tenant for at least 4 consecutive months, your standard deduction (bundfradrag) as a tenant is 2/3 of your annual rent, and payment for electricity, water and heating counts as rental income. You can choose a deduction based on your actual expenses (regnskabsmæssigt fradrag) instead, but then you cannot switch to the standard deduction later. If you rent out all year, it may be assessed as commercial letting, and then other rules can apply (Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen), 2026 (in Danish)).

If you are going to live in a sublet yourself

As a subtenant you are covered by the Rent Act, but you do not have the same protection as an ordinary tenant, because you have no contract with the owner of the property (standard form A). This is what you need to know before you sign:

• If your sublandlord’s lease ends, your sublease also lapses.
• Ask why and for how long the sublandlord is away, and whether the landlord has received a copy of the agreement. A sublease without the right to sublet can end sooner than you expected.
• You can have the rent reviewed by the Rent Tribunal, and if the sublandlord does not comply with a final decision, you must notify the tribunal (Housing Conditions Act § 86, stk. 7).
• The sublandlord must settle and pay back any surplus deposit no later than 6 weeks after the subletting ends (§ 62, stk. 2). Read how to get your deposit back.
• When the whole apartment is sublet to you under § 158, you have no right to make improvements and be compensated for them when you move out (§ 145, stk. 1).

Write down faults and defects when you move in. See our defects list for moving in. If you are looking for a home with your own lease, you can see available homes to rent with BY Administration.

Sources

• The Danish Rent Act (lov om leje, lejeloven), Act no. 341 of 22 March 2022 as amended, Retsinformation (in Danish)
• Housing Conditions Act (lov om boligforhold), Act no. 342 of 22 March 2022 as amended, Retsinformation (in Danish)
• Subletting and swapping (Fremleje og bytte), Ministry of Social Affairs (in Danish)
• What the rent tribunals can handle, City of Copenhagen (in Danish)
• Standard form A, 10th edition, with guidance, Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing (in Danish)
• Renting out a room or a home you live in yourself, Danish Tax Agency (in Danish)