Section 194 of the Danish Rent Act imposes a notification obligation on landlords where the following conditions are met:
Where these conditions are met, the landlord must notify either the tenant representatives or, where no tenant representation exists, all tenants within two weeks of the final ruling being issued.
The notification must be made in writing and must include: (i) information about the subject matter of the dispute; (ii) the outcome of the ruling; and (iii) a full copy of the ruling. Any notification that does not satisfy these requirements is invalid.
The information may be provided digitally, including by making it available on a designated digital platform, provided that tenants have previously been informed that this method of communication will be used. The purpose of this obligation is to ensure that tenants are informed of rulings, particularly those concerning the property in which they reside, so they can identify and pursue any comparable claims of their own.
The following key issues arose in the context of a recent Eastern High Court ruling, U.2026.1076.Ø, concerning a landlord of a property with 88 residential units, who was charged with breaching section 194 in respect of two rent tribunal decisions. This is the first ruling under section 194 of the Danish Rent Act since the rules came into force.
In the first decision of the ruling, the landlord had appealed a rent tribunal decision to the courts. The case was subsequently settled on significantly different terms. The district court found that the settlement should be considered a final ruling, which would trigger the notification obligation under section 194. The Eastern High Court, however, overturned this finding, holding that:
The district court found in its ruling that the settlement should be considered a final ruling which would trigger the notification obligation under section 194. This decision was subsequently overturned by the Eastern High Court.
In the second decision of the ruling, the landlord had notified the tenants of a rent tribunal decision by posting a notice on the property’s notice board — but without attaching a copy of the decision. Instead, the notice stated that the decision could be obtained from the caretaker. The Eastern High Court held that this notification was insufficient, as it did not fulfil the obligation to attach a full copy of the ruling to the written notification. Directing tenants to collect the ruling elsewhere does not satisfy this obligation.
Section 194(1) carries criminal sanctions. Breaching this provision is punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to four months, unless other legislation prescribe a higher penalty.
In this case, the Prosecution Service claimed that the landlord should pay a fine of DKK 500,000, but the district court ordered the landlord to pay a fine of DKK 250,000.
However, the Eastern High Court chose to waive the penalty entirely.
The Eastern High Court ruled that (i) the settlement following the first rent tribunal decision was the final ruling on the matter, so the notification obligation was not triggered, and (ii) although the landlord had breached the notification obligation regarding the second rent tribunal decision by failing to attach a complete copy of the ruling, the penalty should still be waived.
In reaching this conclusion, the court emphasised that the preparatory works provided no guidance on sentencing, that there was no prior case law on the issue, that the prosecution had not substantiated its claim regarding the appropriate penalty level, and that the landlord had no prior convictions.
The penalty was waived in accordance with the mitigation principles of the Danish Criminal Code, which permit the reduction or complete waiver of penalties in cases involving highly mitigating circumstances or excusable ignorance of the law.
While the penalty was waived in this instance on account of the highly mitigating circumstances and the absence of prior case law, future breaches of the notification obligation are unlikely to be met with the same leniency. As the provision becomes more established in practice and further case law develops, landlords should expect courts to impose fines more consistently and at a meaningful level.
According to section 194 of the Danish Rent Act, the landlord’s notification obligation is triggered only by final rulings in residential tenancy matters where a tenant has been wholly or partly successful. Consequently, if a rent tribunal decision is appealed to the courts and the case is subsequently settled, the matter generally falls outside the scope of the statutory notification mechanism. In practice, this may encourage landlords to consider appealing rent tribunal decisions and exploring settlements during court proceedings. At the same time, failing to comply with the notification obligation in cases where it does apply may have serious consequences.
Gorrissen Federspiel’s Real Estate group has extensive experience across all aspects of real estate and is ready to assist with, among other things:
We are happy to provide a specific assessment of the issues relevant to your property portfolio.