Announcement facet zoning plan for room rentals affects room renters in Nijmegen

On September 30, 2020, the municipality of Nijmegen published an advance notice for a facet zoning plan for room rentals. With that facet zoning plan, the municipality also wants to regulate planning-wise that room letting is not just possible. The draft zoning plan is currently being prepared and will be submitted for public inspection next year (October 2021). What does this mean for room rentals in Nijmegen?

What does the facet zoning plan include room rentals?

The municipality has included the current room rental policy and regulations in the Housing Ordinance. The legal tenability of this has yet to be assessed by the Council of State. The municipality has now opted for the facet zoning plan as a (second) instrument to set rules about room rentals. The municipality has opted for this second instrument because when granting a conversion permit in a concrete case, no integral consideration can be made of all spatially relevant interests involved in room occupation in the planning area. By adopting a facet zoning plan, the municipality can lay down rules on all spatially relevant aspects, as long as it complies with good spatial planning. 

The municipality of Nijmegen thus wants to be able to better regulate room rentals and be stronger in dealing with future illegal room rentals. In the facet zoning plan it will be prohibited to subdivide a building where living is allowed (with three or more rooms). Parletting will then only be possible with an environmental permit. The conversion permit from the Housing Ordinance will continue to apply alongside the facet zoning plan, so that both a conversion permit and an environmental permit will be required for property owners who want to subdivide.

Current opportunities for room occupancy expire

The facet zoning plan establishes rules to regulate room rentals. According to the municipality, this should include rules on parking, bicycle parking and preventing the inclusion of regularly occupied properties. Policy rules will also be drawn up for the spatial consideration for granting an environmental permit.

The possibility of room occupancy allowed under current zoning regulations will be eliminated in the facet zoning.

So, as a property owner, you can still take advantage of the current opportunities to subdivide until the draft is available for public inspection. This is still approximately one year. Of course, you are also bound (for the time being) to the conditions in the Housing Ordinance.

Plan damage

Additionally, the advance notice may affect the ability to claim planning damages. The loss of opportunities for room rentals may lead to a lower value or loss of income.

If the possibilities for room occupancy are removed, there may be no right to claim planning damage. Passive assumption of risk may then possibly be invoked. On September 28, 2016(ECLI:NL:RVS:2016:2582), the Division ruled that the risk of realization of planning damage is deemed to have been passively accepted if there is foreseeability and no concrete attempts have been made since then to realize the building and use possibilities that have been removed under the new planning regime. For foreseeability, there must be a concrete policy intention on the basis of which a reasonable person could take into account the chance that the planning situation could change unfavorably. By publishing this advance notice in the Municipal Gazette, the municipality wants to create this foreseeability. If no concrete attempts have been made to make use of the existing possibilities for lodging, the possibility of claiming planning damage may cease to exist.

What can you do?

If you want to take advantage of the opportunities to rent out rooms that currently exist under current zoning plans, it is advisable not to sit still for too long. In less than a year, an environmental permit will become mandatory for room occupancy throughout Nijmegen. In particular, sitting still may void the possibility of claiming planning damage.