Transferring a Rental: Can You "Sell" Your Lease?
Short answer: No. It's illegal to accept or demand money for giving someone access to a rental home – or to make buying your furniture a condition (section 15 of the Danish Rent Act, lejeloven). The penalty is a fine or up to 4 months in prison. The lawful alternatives are swapping, subletting and succession in certain family situations.
The flat is cheap, the location is great, and your friends are queuing up. It's tempting to take a little for "passing on the keys" – or to sell the sofa and the bookcase for 30,000 kr. to whoever gets the lease. Both are illegal.
What does the key money ban say?
When a home is let, arranged or swapped, nobody may receive or demand payment from the tenant, and nobody may require the tenant to enter into another deal that isn't part of the lease (section 15 of the Rent Act) – the so-called dusørregel (the "key money" ban). It applies to landlords, outgoing tenants and middlemen alike. Money paid can be reclaimed with interest, and breaches are punishable by a fine or up to 4 months in prison.
You're free to sell your furniture to the new tenant if they genuinely want to buy it. But the purchase must not be a condition for getting the home, and an inflated furniture price is in practice just a hidden payment for the tenancy.
Who decides who takes over the home?
The landlord does. You can suggest a replacement, but the landlord isn't obliged to choose them, and you aren't automatically released from rent during your notice period because you point to a new tenant. If you move out early, the landlord must in return try to re-let the home, and whatever the landlord gets, or should have got, is deducted from what you owe (section 175(3) of the Rent Act).
Can you swap homes with another tenant?
Yes. If your flat is let solely for residential use, you have the right to swap with the tenant of another residential flat, so that you take over each other's tenancies (section 161 of the Rent Act). No money may be paid for the swap. The landlord can object if:
- the landlord lives in the building and it has fewer than 7 flats
- you haven't lived in the flat for 3 years
- after the swap, the flat would be occupied by more than one person per habitable room
- the landlord otherwise has a reasonable ground.
If you swap into a flat owned by, for example, a municipality or a social housing organisation, you must also meet the special conditions for getting that home (section 162).
When can someone else take over your tenancy?
The law gives certain people the right to continue the tenancy:
- Death: Your spouse can continue the tenancy. If you leave no spouse, a person who has shared a household with you for at least 2 years immediately before the death can continue it (section 163 of the Rent Act).
- Care home: If you move into a care home or nursing home because of age or illness, the same rules apply (section 164).
- Separation or divorce: Who continues the tenancy is settled as part of the separation or divorce (section 165).
- End of cohabitation: If you have shared a household for at least 2 years, you can agree which of you continues the tenancy (section 166).
What about subletting?
Subletting (fremleje) is a temporary arrangement, not a transfer: you are still the tenant and remain liable to the landlord, and your subtenant must move out when the sublet ends. See the rules in our guide to subletting.
And cooperative housing?
If you live in an andelsbolig (a housing cooperative unit), entirely different rules apply. You sell your share under the cooperative's articles and the Cooperative Housing Act (andelsboligloven) – it isn't a lease you're transferring.
How this fits with LejLet.nu
If you see a listing on LejLet.nu where someone wants to "sell" a lease or requires you to buy furniture to get the home, use "Report listing" at the bottom of the listing. You should never pay to get access to a rental home. See our guide to reporting a suspicious listing.