The 2024 Affordable Rent Act pulled a broad band of mid-range homes into the regulated system, so a rent that was perfectly legal to charge a few years ago may not be legal today. Running a property through the WWS points system is the only way to establish where a particular flat now sits.
Start with the Huurcommissie's free huurprijscheck on huurcommissie.nl — it walks through your surface area, WOZ value, facilities, and energy label to spit out a point total. The label matters more than people expect: a good rating adds points, a poor one (E, F, G) actively caps how much can legally be charged, so a badly insulated flat at a high price is worth a second look. The boundary that matters is 186 points: up to 143 is sociale huur, 144 through 186 sits in the newly regulated middenhuur band capped at €1,228.07 a month in 2026, and 187-plus is genuinely free-sector with no statutory ceiling. If your place scores at or under 186 but you're paying more, that's overcharging by definition — and if you're in a new tenancy, you have six months from your start date to ask the Huurcommissie to test the aanvangshuurprijs (starting rent) and lower it retroactively.