1y ago

Amsterdam landlord ordered to lower rent for tiny, leaky room from €1,950 to €95 per month

nltimes.nl Amsterdam landlord ordered to lower rent for tiny, leaky room from €1,950 to €95 per month

Two Amsterdam tenants had great success in reporting their landlord to the Huurcommissie rent tribunal for charging them exorbitant rent. The Huurcommissie ordered the landlord to lower the rent for a small, leaky, drafty room on Keizersgracht from 1,950 euros to temporarily 95 euros per month. The ...

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1y ago

Amsterdam landlord ordered to lower rent for tiny, leaky room from €1,950 to €95 per month

nltimes.nl /2024/01/19/amsterdam-landlord-ordered-lower-rent-tiny-leaky-room-eu1950-eu95-per-month

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51 comments

95€ temporarily until the defects are fixed. Then the 20qm room is worth a rent of 477€.
The Huurcommissie scored the appointment on a point scale, and determined the reasonable rental price should have been 476.85 euros per month. The tribunal then noted that the tenant was unable to lock their own bedroom. Additionally, the wood-framed kitchen skylight had a 10 millimeter crack in it, causing drafts, and the toilet tank in a shared bathroom was leaking.
The tribunal further lowered the rent to 95.37 euros until the damage is fixed, saying it could find no evidence the landlord actually tried to fix the problems. This can gradually increase as repairs are carried out to the maximum of just under 477 euros. The reduction was also backdated to September 1 from the ruling, which was filed at the end of December and published more recently. As a result, the landlord must repay the overpaid rent in the intervening months.
- Good. Fuck that landlord.
  
  Fuck all landlords
- And he owes around 5k€ in back rent! That is proper justice for once.
  
  Not much of a hit considering the landlord is giving back the money they shouldn’t have received in the first place.
  Would be better if they had to give back money out of their own pocket in the form of a fine.
- Still, €477 to live on Keizeersgracht, not to mention the backpay. I'm needing a poo just thinking about it.

Me: Mom, can we please have Huurcommissie?
Mom: No, we have Huurcommissie at home.
Huurcommissie at home: landlord fined for charging 'too little' in rent
- What the actual fuck
  
  The argument is: if your rent is that cheap, you probably have a side deal going on (like extra pay or work for housing) to avoid taxes and/or social security contributions.
  I'm not saying the present system is great, I'm just explaining it and unfortunately some people indeed try "save" taxes that way.
- Not trying to defend the decision, but as far as I know, the reasoning is that if you charge significantly less than you could, it might be because you have other undisclosed agreements with the tenants, like them doing some extra chores for you, repairing the flat or something else. This way, you could avoid a lot of taxes. The sentence also doesn't seem to be a fine in the narrow sense, but rather a demand of additional taxes. If I'm not mistaken, it's perfectly legal to charge very little for a flat, but you still have to pay taxes as if you would have rented it out for a regular price.
  
  It’s weird to me that the taxes are based on how much your charge your tenants? Not on land value, or land use
  
  Or simply getting the "rest" of the rent in cash
- Ah this is why you need you to pay your monthly minimum rent insurance.

NYC landlords renting out literal rat nests for $4000 reading this

- The process of getting house/room in many areas in the Netherlands is full of bureaucracy. We can't simply get a place and move there straight away. We need to register with the local councils and the requirements and regulations each local councils vary between places. Many times, it becomes catch-22 situation, e.g. you need to already have a job, but to get a job you need to register. That's why some people are desperate enough that they move to shitty places.
  
  What? You can just move somewhere if you have a place to live and then you register with the Council.
  Registration is post moving and required.
- Because housing is basically extortion in big European cities. It's like there's a global conspiracy to stop building new housing and lower interest rates so real estate value skyrocket.

Holy shit can I rent it
- For €95 a month I would happily make some of my own little repairs and temporary fixes lol
  
  But then the price goes up again :( It's only €95 because of the problems in the room. When fixed it goes to about €470, which is still all right I guess for that location in Amsterdam.