Tenant rights can either refer to the rights tenants enjoy by law, or to the movement to acquire such rights. Tenant rights generally seek to protect renters from landlord neglect and unfair eviction, as well as secure fair, affordable housing.
Laws dealing with the landlord-tenant relationship vary greatly between jurisdictions. These laws may provide some or all of the following for tenants:
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Tenant-right is no longer a general term used in UK law, other than under agriculture legislation whereby the act of parliament (Agricultural Holdings Act) defines how to value items that a tenant cannot remove at the cessation of a tenancy e.g. fertilizer on the land. The rights of a tenant are enshrined in a variety of legislation including the Landlord and Tenant Act and a range of other legislation.
In 1941 the Nazi occupier introduced a Huurbeschermsbesluit ('rental protection decision') [1] which enumerated the reasons a landlord could legally end a rental contract:
Rent protection was further codified in the 1950 Huurwet ('rental code').
Dutch tenants have also a legal expectation that their sanctity of home be respected at all times. In combination with a very high population density this has led to a flourishing squatter scene in the country, as this made it difficult to evict occupants even if they were not renters.
If a tenant dies, other occupants who are not renters may stay in the house for up to 6 months. If the occupants shared a household with the tenant, they can ask a court of law to let them take over the rental contract. [2]