Huurrecht Uitspraken: Dutch Rent Law Rulings, Explained

Find Dutch court rulings about renting (huurrecht) from the official open data of the Dutch judiciary (Rechtspraak). Search by topic, like schimmel (mould), huurverhoging (rent increase) or ontruiming (eviction). Optionally, get a plain-language explanation and the outcome of each ruling, using your own Claude API key.

What does it do?

1. Searches the official Rechtspraak open data for contract-law rulings from the last 1 to 365 days.
2. Keeps only rulings about renting: homes (woonruimte) and business premises (bedrijfsruimte).
3. Optionally filters by topic words you choose.
4. Returns each ruling with the court, dates, the court's own summary (inhoudsindicatie) and the official link.
5. Optional, beta: with your own Claude API key, each ruling also gets a short explanation in Dutch and English, plus who won.

Why use this instead of a general case-law scraper?

• Rent cases only. The Rechtspraak open data has no "huurrecht" category. Rent cases are mixed into general contract law. This Actor finds them for you.
• Search by topic. Ask for "schimmel, vocht" and get only the mould and damp cases.
• Really new rulings. The court often updates old rulings. This Actor checks the first publication date, so "last 7 days" means rulings first published in the last 7 days.
• Who won, in plain words (beta). Court summaries often don't say who won. In a test of 5 mould rulings, 2 summaries didn't show the outcome at all. The AI explanation reads the full ruling and tells you.

Who is it for?

• Websites and newsletters about renting that want a weekly overview of new rent rulings.
• Housing associations (woningcorporaties), landlords and letting agents following what courts decide about arrears, nuisance, repairs or ending a lease.
• Legal-tech and research teams building datasets of Dutch rent case law.
• AI agents answering questions about Dutch rental disputes with real, recent examples.

When should an AI agent use this?

• "What do Dutch courts decide when a rental home has mould?" → onderwerp: "schimmel, vocht", sinceDays: 365
• "Show me this week's new Dutch rent rulings." → default input
• "Find recent rulings about a landlord ending a lease for own use." → onderwerp: "eigen gebruik", sinceDays: 365
• "Explain ruling ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:9847." → eclis: ["ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:9847"] (plus an API key for the explanation)

Input

Field	What it does	Default
sinceDays	Rulings first published in the last N days (1–365)	7
onderwerp	Topic words, separated by commas. Only rulings whose court summary mentions one of them.	empty (all rent rulings)
anthropicApiKey	Your own Claude API key, for AI explanations (optional, stored encrypted)	empty
aiModel	claude-haiku-5-5 (cheapest) or claude-sonnet-5-5	claude-haiku-5-5
maxRulings	Stop after this many rulings (1–500)	50
eclis	Fetch these specific rulings instead of searching	empty

Example input

{
  "sinceDays": 365,
  "onderwerp": "schimmel, vocht"
}

Output

One record per ruling. Example (the AI fields are only filled when you add an API key):

{
  "ecli": "ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:9847",
  "rechtbank": "Rechtbank Amsterdam",
  "datum": "2026-10-02",
  "publicatiedatum": "2026-10-05",
  "procedure": ["Bodemzaak", "Eerste aanleg - enkelvoudig"],
  "officieleSamenvatting": "Beëindiging van de huurovereenkomst wegens dringend eigen gebruik wordt afgewezen. ...",
  "aantalWoorden": 1975,
  "link": "https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:9847",
  "uitlegStatus": "uitgelegd",
  "soortHuur": "woonruimte",
  "onderwerp": "opzegging wegens dringend eigen gebruik",
  "uitkomst": "huurder",
  "watKreegWie": "De huurders mogen blijven; de verhuurder betaalt de proceskosten.",
  "uitlegNL": "De verhuurder wilde de huur opzeggen omdat hij zelf in de woning wilde wonen. De rechter vindt dat hij niet heeft aangetoond dat dat nu nodig is. De huurders mogen blijven.",
  "uitlegEN": "The landlord wanted to end the lease to move back in himself. The court found he had not shown he needs the home right now. The tenants can stay.",
  "disclaimer": "AI-uitleg, geen juridisch advies. Lees altijd de officiële uitspraak. / AI explanation, not legal advice. Always read the official ruling."
}

uitkomst (outcome) is one of: huurder (tenant won), verhuurder (landlord won), gemengd (both partly), geen_eindbeslissing (interim ruling, no final decision yet).

uitlegStatus tells you what happened with the explanation: uitgelegd (explained), geen_sleutel (no API key given), fout (AI error for this ruling), ai_gestopt (AI stopped, e.g. invalid key or no credit).

AI explanations (beta): bring your own key

• Add your own Claude API key in the input. The AI costs go to your own Claude account: about $0.001 per ruling with Claude Haiku 5.5, or about $0.015 with Claude Sonnet 5.5.
• Your key is stored encrypted by Apify and only used to call the Claude API during your run. It is never written to the log or the output.
• If the AI fails (wrong key, no credit, service busy), you still get all rulings, just without explanation. The log tells you why.
• With a key, cases that turn out not to be landlord–tenant disputes (for example squatters) are left out of search results.
• This feature is new. Please report anything odd via the Issues tab.

Pricing

You pay per ruling delivered; see the Pricing tab for the current price. Runs without results cost almost nothing. AI explanations are paid separately by your own Claude API key.

Good to know

• About 7 new rent rulings are published per week. For topic questions, search a longer period (90–365 days).
• The topic filter reads the court's own summary, not the full text. Use synonyms, like schimmel, vocht.
• Only published rulings are included. Courts publish a selection of all their decisions.
• One run looks back at most 365 days and returns at most 500 rulings.

Data source and legal

• Source: the official open data of the Dutch judiciary, Rechtspraak Open Data (data.rechtspraak.nl). The rulings are public domain. Private persons are pseudonymized by the courts.
• No website scraping: the Actor uses the official open-data web service and respects its limits.
• This Actor is independent and not affiliated with the Rechtspraak.
• Not legal advice. AI explanations can be wrong. Always read the official ruling via the link.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. Without a key you get all rent rulings with the court's summary and link. The key only adds the AI explanation.

Which courts are included? All courts in the open data that publish rent rulings, from rechtbanken (district courts) to gerechtshoven (courts of appeal) and the Hoge Raad (Supreme Court).

Can I run it every week? Yes. Use Apify Schedules with sinceDays: 7 to get each week's new rent rulings.

Changelog

• 0.2: optional AI explanations with your own Claude API key (beta).
• 0.1: rent rulings from Rechtspraak open data, topic filter, first-publication-date check.