Three days to change your mind when buying a house in the Netherlands

Once you and the seller have signed the purchase agreement, it binds you. As a private buyer you then have a statutory cooling-off period of three days. Within it you can cancel without a reason and without paying anything.

Do your research on the house and discuss your financing before you sign. The Dutch cooling-off period gives you a short window to look at your decision again. After that, the conditions you agreed decide what way out you still have.

The period starts when you receive the contract

The cooling-off period starts at 00.00 on the day after you received the contract signed by both parties. Keep the email or the receipt, so you can find the date of receipt when you work out when the period ends.

The period is three days, but weekends and recognised public holidays can move the end. At least two ordinary days have to fall inside it, and it may not end on a weekend day or a public holiday. Work out the date using the explanation and the examples.

Use the time to check your decision

Read the purchase price, the transfer date, the list of movable items and the conditions again. Put anything unclear in your agreement to your agent or a legal adviser.

If you want to cancel, tell the seller within the period that you are using your cooling-off right. Make sure your statement reaches them in time and keep proof. The seller has no statutory cooling-off period.

A condition works differently

After the cooling-off period you can only get out through an ontbindende voorwaarde written into the contract. If you then fail to complete, the penalty provisions of your contract can apply. In the standard contract that penalty is set at 10% of the purchase price, and a notice of default with a period to put things right comes first.

A condition only applies where you agreed it. Usually that is the financing condition, but there can be more: a structural survey, NHG, or the sale of your own home. It has its own deadline and its own requirements.

A rejected mortgage does not end the purchase automatically. Check what you have to report, to whom and with what substantiation. If you fail to complete after the deadline, the penalty provisions of your contract can apply.

Put the date of receipt, the end of the cooling-off period and the dates of your conditions side by side. They are different deadlines, even where they overlap.

What to do now

• keep the message that shows when you received the signed agreement
• work out your end date using the rules for weekends and recognised public holidays
• use these days to test your decision, not to get your financing in place