The 'Garantie Som' Trap: How Three-Month Deposit Demands Lock Internationals Out of Dutch Rentals

A user in Rotterdam found a flat listed at €1,800 a month. Affordable on her salary. The makelaar's email arrived: "garantie som van drie maanden." €5,400 upfront, plus first month's rent, plus agency fees. She had the income. She didn't have €7,000+ sitting liquid after an international move.

Since July 1, 2023, the Good Landlord Act (Wet goed verhuurderschap) explicitly caps deposits at two months of basic rent (kale huur). That €5,400 demand? It's illegal. The legal maximum would be €3,600.

But the practice hasn't disappeared. It's morphed. Landlords and makelaars still ask for three months — sometimes more — and frame it as a "garantie som" rather than a deposit. Same money, different label. The effect is identical: a financial wall that international renters bounce off of.

The garantie som huren nederland internationals face isn't a neutral financial requirement. It functions as an income test by proxy — and as a filter that disproportionately excludes non-Dutch applicants.

A 2023 national correspondence-testing study found that applicants with Moroccan-sounding names had an 18% lower chance of receiving a viewing invitation than those with Dutch-sounding names. Mystery calls in 2025 revealed that over half of rental intermediaries were willing to cooperate with discriminatory landlord requests.

The garantie som is the polite version of that same dynamic. A landlord who can't legally say "no foreigners" can instead demand a deposit that most internationals — fresh arrived, without Dutch guarantors, with savings tied up in visa fees, flights, and temporary housing — simply cannot produce.

It looks neutral. It isn't.

Let's break down what an international renter in Amsterdam actually faces when a landlord demands three months upfront.

One-bedroom apartment: €1,500–€2,000 per month. Three-month deposit: €4,500–€6,000. First month's rent: another €1,500–€2,000. Agency fees (often illegal but still charged): €1,500+. Total upfront: €7,500–€9,500.

That's five to six months of rent before you've slept a single night in the place. For a Dutch renter with local savings, a guarantor, and an existing banking relationship, this is painful but manageable. For someone who arrived last month with a BSN, a job offer, and a bank account that's still being set up, it's a brick wall.

The legal cap of two months would bring that deposit down to €3,000–€4,000. Still not cheap. But the difference between €4,000 and €6,000 in upfront cash is the difference between "tight but doable" and "I need to leave the country."

Market power. In Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Rotterdam, there are more applicants than properties. A landlord who demands three months' deposit knows that if one international walks away, another applicant will appear.

There's also an information gap. Many internationals don't know about the two-month cap. They come from countries where deposits are regulated differently — or not at all — and they assume the Dutch landlord's demand is standard practice. It isn't. It's illegal.

Then there's enforcement. Municipalities only established reporting offices for rental abuses in January 2024. The Huurcommissie can issue binding decisions, but the process takes months. By the time a complaint is resolved, the property is long gone. Landlords know this. They bank on the fact that desperate renters won't escalate.

Here's where it gets worse. Excessive deposit demands are a hallmark of rental scams targeting internationals.

Scammers exploit the same information asymmetry: they know internationals are unfamiliar with Dutch rental norms, under time pressure, and likely to accept high upfront costs as "just how things work here." They request deposits before viewings or contract signing — something no legitimate Dutch landlord would ever do.

So when a real landlord demands three months' deposit illegally, they normalize the exact pattern that scammers use. The line between "exploitative landlord" and "outright scammer" becomes blurry. For an international who's heard stories about Dutch rental fraud, a €5,000 demand from a real makelaar doesn't set off alarm bells — because they've already been conditioned to expect it.

First: know the number. Since July 1, 2023, deposits cannot exceed two months of basic rent (kale huur). Not three. Not "three months as a garantie som." Two. Any demand above that is illegal, regardless of what the landlord calls it.

Second: never pay before viewing and signing. Legitimate Dutch landlords never request deposits to "reserve" a property or before a contract is signed. If someone asks for money before you've seen the place and signed the lease, walk away.

Third: document everything. Take photos at check-in and check-out. Keep all emails, WhatsApp messages, and payment records. If a landlord demands three months, that correspondence is evidence.

Fourth: report it. The Huurcommissie handles deposit disputes. Your municipality's rental office (woningtoezicht) handles landlord misconduct under the Good Landlord Act. The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights takes discrimination complaints. Municipalities have had reporting offices for rental abuses since January 2024.

The process isn't fast. But silence guarantees nothing changes.

The Netherlands sells itself as an open, internationally minded country. Tech companies recruit globally. Universities court international students. The government runs campaigns to attract skilled migrants.

Then those same people arrive and hit a housing wall that operates through quiet, technical mechanisms — a garantie som here, a guarantor requirement there, a "Dutch income only" filter on a Pararius listing. Each barrier looks small in isolation. Together, they form a system that filters out exactly the people the Netherlands claims to want.

The two-month deposit cap was supposed to fix one piece of this. It hasn't, because laws only work when they're enforced — and when the people they protect know they exist.

At House Hunter, we see the garantie som demand in listings and makelaar responses regularly. We flag it when we can. But the real fix isn't a notification — it's enforcement, awareness, and renters who know enough to say no.