Although this article is written from the perspective of a tenant, it contains very useful information for landlords as well.
Preventive check
Mister Sharma*, an IT-professional working in Amstelveen, contacted DAG regarding some doubts he had about his rental agreement. There was no legal conflict as such, but he wanted to have the draft of the agreement checked by a legal expert before signing it. He also had some questions regarding the legal consequences of some clauses in the contract.
It turned out his suspicions where anything but baseless. Quite some breaches of the law were present in the rental agreement with extensive, negative financial reprecussions for mister Sharma in the future. A letter was written by DAG to his landlord, demanding compliance with the law, and thus protecting the rights by Dutch law of mister Sharma as a tenant. The case was succesfully closed after negotiations in advantage of mr. Sharma.
Given how often expats become the disadvantaged party in tenancy issues, DAG provides you with some basics on the rights of tenants in expat rental agreements.
The Good Landlordship Act
On the 1st of July 2023, the Good Landlordship Act came to effect. This law has been made specifically to protect tenants against malpratice by landlords. Amongst the many obligations and prohibitions for landlords are:
– The landlord is not allowed to discriminate his tenants. To safeguard a transparant selection procedure, neutral selection criteria should be laid down in writing. These criteria should be available publicly and should be lived up to. If the landlord hires a broker, the broker should live up to the aforementioned criteria as well. The choice for a specific candidate should be explained to the rejected candidates.
– Intimidation of tenants in any form is prohibited. Even though intimidation is already prohibited by the Dutch Code of Criminal Law, the legislator wanted to emphasize this by laying it down specifically in this Act as well.
– The deposit asked by the landlord may not exceed the amount of two months of rent. In daily practice, we often see far higher amounts being demanded as a deposit. This is obviously illegal and can be challenged.
The rules mentioned above apply to all tenants. For expats specifically, the following rules are applicable as well:
– It is not allowed to connect the employment contract to the rental contract. This prevents the rental agreement from being ended as soon as the employment is ended.
– The tenant should be informed in writing on his rights and obligations of the rental agreement in a language well known to the tenants. Even though the agreement itself can be in Dutch, the information should be in the language of preference of the tenant. This also applies to existing rental agreements signed before the 1st of July 2023.
– The city council may impose permit requirements to landlords letting premises to expats. The requirements that should be met in order to obtain a permit can cover different categories. One of those categories may include the available facilities in the premises provided by the landlord.
Sanctions
The council of mayor and aldermen of your municipality can punish breaching the The Good Landlordship Act in several ways. Fines can be given upto € 90.000,00. Administrative coercion is another option to force the landlord to comply. In case the landlord persists in illegal malpractice, the management of the premises can be taken over by the municipality. DAG can help you by submitting a request to the municipality to have these sanctions imposed.
Your rental agreement
Do you want to have your rental agreement examined? Does your landlord breach your rights as a tenant? Is there a legal conflict with your landlord? Do not hesitate to start a non-committal conversation with one of our legal experts.