Last updated: 16 September 2026
Some Danish letting agents only offer company leases. A lease like that needs a company registered in Denmark, with a CVR number, to stand behind the tenancy. Whether any particular employer agrees to do that is a commercial decision. It is not something employment law makes them do.
This comes up when someone moves abroad and keeps their job. The employment side is settled. The flat is not. Agents in and around Copenhagen often market to people arriving from other countries, and some of them will only sign with a business. So a private renter on a good salary can still be turned away.
A little context on the money helps too. On a flat, the deposit is normally up to three months' rent, per lifeindenmark.dk, the official guide written by Denmark's public authorities. That is real cash sitting behind a contract, which is part of why the question of who signs matters so much.
Why some Danish lettings are arranged company to company
The short answer is that the agent has chosen to trade with businesses rather than with private renters. It is a letting practice, not a rule of Danish law. Some agents who focus on people arriving from abroad build their whole offer that way, and they apply it to every tenant who walks through the door.
Renters are often told there is a tax reason behind it. We would leave that claim where we found it. The simpler reading is that a business tenant looks lower risk: there is a registered company standing behind the rent, and a named contact if something goes wrong. That is why a strong private applicant does not always change the answer.
What is a CVR number?
A CVR number is the number a business gets when it is entered on Denmark's central business register. The register is run by the Danish Business Authority, which describes the Central Business Register as holding information about businesses in Denmark and Greenland. It is public, so anyone can look a company up.
A company that registers in Denmark is given a CVR number as part of that process, per Business in Denmark, the authority's own service for registering a business. In day to day terms, the number is how a Danish counterparty checks that a company exists and can be traced.
That is the whole point for a letting agent. A foreign company with no Danish registration has no CVR number, so it cannot meet the requirement, however large or well known it is. This is the gap that catches employers out when they first hear about it.
What is a guarantor actually agreeing to?
A guarantor promises to pay if the tenant does not. In a company lease it usually goes further than that. The company is often the tenant itself, so it holds the contract and the rent, and the employee lives in the flat under the company's name rather than their own.
That is a bigger commitment than it first looks. Rent runs for the agreed term whether or not the person is still employed, still in the country, or still in the flat. Damage, unpaid bills and early exit can all land on the company. Get it in writing: the official guide for newcomers to Denmark tells renters to have a lease before paying any deposit.
Does an employer of record have to do this?
No. An employer of record is the legal employer: the contract, payroll, tax and statutory benefits. Housing sits outside that. No employer, at home or abroad, has to take on a tenancy or guarantee one for a member of staff.
So a refusal is not a compliance failure. It is a choice about risk. Standing behind a lease puts a housing liability on a company's own books, and plenty of businesses will not carry one. Where a company is willing, it tends to be a separate arrangement with its own terms and its own price.
The practical lesson is to ask the question early rather than late. Raise it while the move is still being planned, not once a flat has been found and an agent is waiting. The answer shapes the search, so it belongs at the start of it.
What to settle before anyone signs
Settle the paperwork questions before the property search gets serious. The answers change which flats are possible at all, and they are quicker to get now than to unpick later. Most of the questions are about what happens afterwards rather than what happens on move in day.
Get the answers in writing, from the agent and from whoever is being asked to sign. Comfort offered at a viewing is worth very little once a company name is on a contract. If an answer comes back as "we will sort that out later", treat it as a no for planning purposes.
| What to settle | What to ask |
|---|---|
| Who is the tenant | Is the named tenant the employee, the company, or both? |
| Who is the guarantor | What exactly is being guaranteed, and for how long? |
| If the job ends | Does the lease end, transfer, or carry on as it is? |
| If the employee leaves Denmark | Who is left holding the rent, and from what date? |
| Who pays the deposit | Whose name is it in, and who gets it back at the end? |
| Notice | How much notice does the lease require on each side? |
None of those are unusual questions. They are simply easier to ask before a signature than after one.
The same problem in other countries
Company leases are not only a Danish thing, but they are not a global norm either. Other markets have their own rental customs, their own deposit limits and their own view of tenants who have just arrived. Some want a local guarantor, some want several months up front, and many want nothing out of the ordinary.
What travels is the shape of the problem, not the detail. Employment and housing are two separate contracts with two separate sets of risk, and a move can stall on the second one long after the first is agreed. The same chain reaction runs through visas, leases and contracts, and it is usually the housing link that snaps.
The right answer depends on your employee's situation, the city and the agent in front of you. Our Denmark hiring guide covers the employment side. For the rest, talk it through with someone before anyone signs anything.