IT in the ROZ lease agreement: who is responsible?

An office or business space without a working internet connection is barely usable today. For virtually every organization, a stable digital foundation is just as essential as heating, water and electricity. Yet in most lease agreements, that foundation is remarkably poorly described.

Anyone leasing or letting commercial space in the Netherlands usually works with a model contract from the Raad voor Onroerende Zaken, the well known ROZ model. That model is legally sound and widely accepted. It was simply never intended as a technical inventory of digital infrastructure.

This gives rise to a recurring question: what can a tenant expect regarding IT infrastructure in office space, and who is responsible for the internet provision? In this article we outline what a ROZ contract does and does not regulate, where discussion arises in practice, and how transparency can be achieved.

What does a ROZ lease agreement normally regulate?

A ROZ model, for instance for office space, consists of a lease agreement with accompanying general provisions. The arrangements mainly concern legal and structural matters. Think of the description of the leased property, the permitted use, the rent and indexation, the service costs and the term of the agreement.

The model also regulates the division of maintenance between tenant and landlord, the condition of delivery at the start and end of the lease, and arrangements about installations. Those installations usually concern heating, cooling, lighting and sometimes elevators, not automatically a network or internet connection.

Important to understand: a ROZ contract is not a technical survey of the building. It describes arrangements, not readings of digital quality. Anyone who wants to know exactly what cabling, patch cabinets and connections are present will rarely find that in the standard text.

Is internet or IT infrastructure standard in a ROZ contract?

The short answer is: usually not in detail. A ROZ lease agreement rarely contains a concrete description of the digital infrastructure. Internet provisions are often regarded as a user facility that the tenant arranges themselves, comparable to fitting out workstations.

The landlord generally delivers the building and the physical facilities, but not automatically a working IT environment. That seems logical, until the practical questions land on the table. It is precisely those questions that determine who bears costs and responsibility later on.

• Who arranges and pays for the fiber connection to the building?
• Who bears the subscription costs for the internet connection?
• Who manages the data cabling within the leased space?
• Who is responsible for the patch cabinet or technical room?
• What happens to the installed facilities at the end of the lease?

Without clear agreements on this, the division of responsibility for internet between landlord and tenant remains vague. And vagueness is exactly what you want to avoid in a long term lease agreement.

Why does this cause discussion in practice?

The uncertainty almost always surfaces only at the moment a tenant wants to move or start operations. At that point expectations and reality diverge, resulting in discussion and delay.

A few recognizable situations:

• A tenant expects a plug and play office where work can start immediately, but it turns out no suitable data cabling is present.
• A landlord assumes internet is entirely the tenant's responsibility, while the tenant assumes a basic provision comes with the building.
• A building is commercially presented as a modern office, while the digital foundation is in fact lacking.

The problem rarely lies in bad intentions. It lies in the absence of a shared language for digital quality. There is no standard way in which the delivery level of an office is described in terms of IT, whereas that has by now become common practice for energy performance.

A lease agreement of dozens of pages can remain completely silent about the one facility the entire business runs on: the connection.

Which IT facilities belong to a delivery level?

When you think about what a building should be capable of digitally, a list of topics emerges that keep becoming more important. They are invisible during the daily walkthrough, but decisive for the usability of the space.

1. Fiber connection and, where necessary, redundant connections for continuity.
2. Data cabling of sufficient quality, for example CAT6 or CAT6A.
3. A patch room or technical room where equipment is safely housed.
4. WiFi facilities with reliable coverage throughout the building.
5. Server and network facilities that match the intended use.
6. Access control and camera security.
7. Climate control of technical rooms.
8. Backup and monitoring capabilities.

These topics directly relate to cybersecurity in real estate and to the question of how future proof a building actually is. They therefore deserve a place in the building information, not as separate assumptions but as documented characteristics.

How does the IT-Label create transparency?

It is important to emphasize what the IT-Label is not. It does not replace a ROZ contract, nor is it a technical standard such as ISO or NEN. Neither is it a quality mark with legal status. The IT-Label is an independent classification methodology that translates the IT infrastructure present in a building into an understandable delivery level.

This allows landlord, tenant and advisor to discuss the same level, without anyone first having to become a technical expert. The classification runs from PREMIUM to SHELL and makes clear at a glance what a building offers digitally.

• IT1+ PREMIUM: a complete, future oriented digital infrastructure is present.
• IT2 PLUG & PLAY: the building is quickly operational with limited additions.
• IT3 READY: the foundation is present, the tenant adds further to it.
• IT4 CORE: limited IT facilities are present.
• IT5 SHELL: the digital fit out is provided almost entirely by the tenant.

None of these classifications is a judgment on the quality of a building. They describe a starting point. An IT5 SHELL can be a deliberate choice for a tenant who wants to arrange everything themselves, as long as both parties know this in advance.

Advice for landlords and tenants

With a few concrete steps, you can prevent most of the discussions about IT infrastructure in office space. It mainly comes down to naming in advance what would otherwise remain unspoken later.

For landlords

Describe the IT facilities present explicitly during the letting process and make digital quality part of the standard building information. This prevents expectations that do not match reality and strengthens the position of your property. Digital infrastructure is, moreover, increasingly becoming a factor in the value of your real estate.

For tenants

Ask about the IT infrastructure present before signing the lease agreement and have it documented what will and will not be delivered. Our page about what to pay attention to as a tenant helps you ask the right questions. A short conversation in advance is always cheaper than a renovation afterward.

Your next step toward a transparent office

A building can be structurally perfect, but without a digital foundation it is not future proof. The IT-Label helps the market make IT infrastructure just as transparent as other building qualities, so that every party knows what is being discussed.

Would you like to know the digital delivery level of your property or intended rental space? See how the classification works in practice and map the digital quality of your building just as clearly as its square meters.