Renter abuse is an issue in the Netherlands — and because of the huge housing shortage, many have no choice but to accept their lot: high rents, high deposits, and unnecessary fees. But it looks like something is being done about it.
How? Deposits for Dutch rental properties will finally be regulated.
This comes after an agreement by the House of Representatives, aimed at better overall protection for tenants.
New rules
Currently, in the Netherlands, there are no legal regulations when it comes to rental deposits. If a tenant runs into issues with their landlords, all they can do is take them to court — an intimidating process, to say the least.
But that’s about to change: New rules proposed by the Dutch government will regulate not just the deposit amount, but also its reimbursement.
READ MORE | Renting in the Netherlands: the ultimate guide
Should the legislation be approved (and it looks like it will 💪), landlords may only request a maximum of twice the basic monthly rent (without service costs) as a deposit.
On top of that, they will have to refund the deposit within two weeks after a tenant moves out. Hoera! 💸
Senate needs to approve
A member of the DENK party, Stephan van Baarle, proposed the legislation after seeing that many landlords in the Netherlands withhold their renters’ deposits as a sneaky form of extra income.
READ MORE | 6 Things about getting your deposit back in the Netherlands
Minister De Jonge has previously responded positively to the plan, and yesterday, the House of Representatives also gave its nod of approval.
Now all that’s missing is the Senate’s “ja“! 🤞
Do you have any experience with sky-high rental deposits in the Netherlands? Tells us in the comments!
That is going to be so assuring. I have heard so many cases where the deposit was given back very late or not at all.
This is good news. I rented a house and at the end of the tenant I hired a cleaner to clean the property. We cleaned it together and left the property in immaculate condition. Yet more than €700 was deducted from my deposit because I did not hire a cleaning company to do the cleaning. That is a steep amount of money to clean a property that was already clean.
I left my previous rental house in Jan 23, but the land lady is holding 1500 euros giving weird excuses. Pathetic situation of overall rental procedure in Netherlands. It needs a serious regulation.
What about the hidden commisions by some makkelars thats no where written about it in cases 1000eu extra ..
It would be better if they would regulate the actual costs of the rent instead of the deposit. But at least this is a step forward to a more controlled housing in Holland.
But that’s not a reason to do excessive celebrations. There is still a very long way to go before things are going to be “normal”.
The landlord company (nationalevastgoedgroep.nl) hold my deposit for 5 months (2 months more than the legal period in the contract). And I couldn’t do anything, it was a really bad time, I had a feeling that because I’m an expat they are doing whatever they want and they knew that I can’t do anything.