It’s a tale as old as time in the Netherlands: you search desperately for housing, you find a room that charges extortionate rent, and you settle for it — but not in this case.
One Amsterdam landlord has finally been put in his place after charging €1,950 per month for a drafty, leaking room on the Keizersgracht.
Not just one but two tenants who were renting a room in the same building decided to challenge their landlord’s mathematics — because the numbers just weren’t adding up.
All hail the rental committee
The tenants approached the Huurcommissie (Rental Committee), which carried out an evaluation of the rooms.
Their findings? The landlord was, well, taking the piss.
For one room, it was found that the rent should have been reduced from €1,950 per month to €476.84 per month, NU.nl reports.
Reduced even further until repairs are carried out
AND that’s not all.
Due to the poor state of the home (such as drafts and leaking), the rent was temporarily reduced even further to just €95.37 per month until the landlord made repairs.
Let me remind you, the rent was €1,950.
Oh, and that second tenant who went to the rental committee? Their monthly rent was also reduced — by €700 per month.
It turns out there can be happy endings in the rental sector from time to time. Let’s hope this becomes more common.
*Googles Huurcommissie Leiden*
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