Contracts carrying a diplomatenclausule circulate widely in expat-heavy cities, and the name alone is enough to unsettle a tenant reading it for the first time. The clause is a genuine legal exception rather than a trick, but it is sometimes attached where it does not properly apply.
It's not something to panic about, just something to read carefully. A diplomatenclausule lets an owner-occupier rent out their own home temporarily — classically because they're posted abroad for work — with the explicit intent to move back in later. It's one of the carved-out exceptions to the fixed-term rental ban, so it's still legal to sign a time-limited contract under this clause. You keep all the normal tenant protections while it runs — proper maintenance, rent rules, the works — but the landlord can end the tenancy once they genuinely return, subject to the standard statutory notice period (roughly three months, longer the longer you've lived there). The thing actually worth checking is whether the exception genuinely applies: the landlord should have lived there themselves before letting it out. If that story doesn't add up, it may just be a workaround dressed up to dodge the fixed-term ban, which is worth flagging to a huurteam or Het Juridisch Loket.