How to Rent Out a Room in Your Home
Short answer: If you own your home, you may as a rule rent out a room; if you have an andelsbolig (housing cooperative unit), the board usually has to approve it, and if you rent, you may sublet up to half the habitable rooms. Either side can give 1 month's notice, so prepaid rent may be at most 1 month's rent.
There's a spare room in the flat that's really just gathering dust – and a rental market where students in the big cities, in particular, are looking for exactly that. Renting out a room is different from renting out a whole home, and there are a few things you should have sorted out before you put up a notice or create a listing.
Are you allowed to rent out a room?
It depends on how you live yourself:
- Owner-occupied home: As a general rule, you're free to rent out a room – it's your home. Do check whether the owners' association's (ejerforening's) bylaws set any requirements.
- Andelsbolig (housing cooperative unit): Under the standard bylaws of ABF (the national association of housing cooperatives), the board can allow individual rooms to be sublet on the conditions it sets. Ask the board before you advertise.
- Rented home: Renting out a room is legally a sublet. If you still live there yourself, you have the right to sublet up to half of the home's habitable rooms, and no more people may live in the home than there are habitable rooms. The agreement must be in writing, and your landlord must receive a copy before the sublet begins (section 157 of the Danish Rent Act, lejeloven). Skip that, and in the worst case you risk losing your own tenancy.
Notice: 1 month – but not a free hand to raise the rent
You can terminate the letting of a room in your own home with 1 month's notice and without giving a reason (lejeloven section 170, no. 1, and section 175(1)). This only applies when the room is part of the flat, or the one- or two-family house, that you live in yourself. Always give notice in writing, so there's no doubt about the date.
Huslejenævnet (the local rent tribunal) can still step in. In regulated municipalities – most of them – the tenant of a room can ask the tribunal to assess whether the rent or terms are unreasonable (section 34), and the tribunal can overturn a notice to quit that stems from an attempt to obtain unreasonable rent (section 35).
Deposit, prepaid rent and heating
- Deposit: at most 3 months' rent (section 59(1)).
- Prepaid rent: at most 3 months' rent, and at the same time no more than the rent due in the tenant's notice period (section 59(3)). Since the notice period for a room in your own home is 1 month, prepaid rent may be no more than 1 month's rent.
- Heating: For a single room, the cost of heating and hot water may be included in the rent (section 65(2)). State in the lease what the rent covers – electricity, heating and internet, for example – so there's no doubt.
Write a contract, even if it's "just" a room. A verbal agreement is just as hard to prove in a dispute as one about a whole flat.
Practical agreements you don't need for a whole home
When you rent out a room, a stranger effectively moves into your home. That calls for some agreements that a landlord of a whole home doesn't need in the same way:
- Write down house rules from the start: cleaning shared areas, guests and quiet after a certain time
- Agree on how you'll share costs for electricity, heating and internet
- Agree on who has keys, and whether the tenant should get any alarm code
- Say it out loud from the beginning: if the chemistry isn't right, you can both give 1 month's notice
Tax on renting out a room
The rental income must be included in your tax return, but much of it may be tax-free. You can deduct 13,800 kr. (2026) and pay tax on 60% of the rest – or, if the tenant stays with you for at least 4 months, use section 15 P of the Danish Tax Assessment Act (ligningsloven), under which a tenant can deduct ⅔ of their own annual rent. See Do You Pay Tax When You Rent Out a Room?.
How to create the listing on LejLet.nu
Choose the property type "Room" when you create the listing. It then shows up for tenants who are searching for a room, and tenants with a matching saved search are notified when it goes live. Be clear about what's included: a private bathroom or a shared one? Access to the kitchen, living room or balcony? Who already lives there? The more a tenant knows in advance, the fewer surprises and cancellations you'll get.
Note that the listing wizard allows prepaid rent of up to 3 months' rent. For a room in your own home, you may ask for no more than 1 month's prepaid rent.