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 rent for another room in the same building was lowered from 1,200 euros to temporarily 93 euros.
  • fosforus@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    Why did anyone pay, and keep paying, 1,950 or 1,200 euros for such a shitty rooms in the first place?

    • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      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.

      • strider@feddit.nlEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        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.

  • 342345@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    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.

    • Bob@feddit.nlEnglish
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      9 months ago

      Still, €477 to live on Keizeersgracht, not to mention the backpay. I’m needing a poo just thinking about it.

        • Lodra@programming.devEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          No. There are good landlords. They’re definitely small scale. Normal homeowners that are able to scale their efforts to a few rental units. There’s also a real need for renting rather than owning.

          The real problems are all large scale landlords and also bad landlords (of all sizes) that overcharge, abuse tenants, forgo maintenance, etc.

          • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            Yeah my FIL, just recently sold a condo in FL. He’s had it since the 1980s and for the last 25 years it’s been rented by an elderly woman for basically the cost of condo fees, taxes and maintenance (though I think he lost money upgrading the sliding door after a hurricane). It was supposed to be where he retired to (15 years ago), but his wife had Alzheimer’s, so he ended up selling it when his tenant finally died, and sunk all the profit right back into his wife’s nursing home.

    • Quokka@quokk.auEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Ah this is why you need you to pay your monthly minimum rent insurance.

      • neo@feddit.deEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        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.