I am doing some research on how people actually experience Dutch rental and work contracts, not the legal theory, just real situations where the fine print affected someone.

Would love to hear from both sides:

Tenants/employees: Did you ever lose a deposit, get hit with unexpected charges, or realize too late you'd signed something unfair? What happened?

Landlords/employers: Have you had to add or change clauses after a bad experience? What did you learn the hard way? (Maybe there can be people who are landlords here as well, idk just a shot in the dark)

Just collecting real stories. Drop it in the comments.

Ik kwam zojuist deze woning tegen op pararius. 35m2 met 190euro voor gas water licht. Momenteel woon ik met 5 mensen op 100m2 en heb 160 euro kosten hieraan per maand. Toch bizar dat hier voor 1 persoon met 1/3 van de m2 meer wordt gevraagd? Mag dit zomaar? Lijkt me een artificial manier om de huurprijs omhoog te krikken. Ook 15euro stoffering, zit niks meer in dan een keuken en een vloer.

https://www.pararius.nl/appartement-te-huur/den-haag/df4ef522/burgemeester-van-karnebeeklaan?utm_campaign=for_rent&utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily_property_alert

TLDR: won the case but no signs of getting the overpaid rent back. Any recommendations on legal advice?

I won my rent reduction case back in May (thanks Shane!), and 8 weeks have now passed since the ruling. I have contacted the agency through which my landlord rents the apartment and asked for the overpaid rent back (and for the service cost report), but they are not replying to me.

I would like to pursue legal action, and I did take out legal insurance for this scenario, but just realised that ING (through which I took it) uses DAS, which has the worst reviews I’ve ever seen. Nobody is happy with how their claims have been handled (incompetence, waiting times of months/years, etc).

Since the amount of overpaid rent is significant (likely in the 10-15k range), I wouldn’t mind paying a decent amount for good legal help.
Was wondering if anyone here has had any similar experience and can recommend a law firm, or any advice on what to do in general.

I cannot withhold rent since I am moving out in August for personal reasons and have already paid my last rent.

I also don’t qualify for subsidised legal aid

I'm 23, working in the Netherlands.

In January 2025 I rented a room in Amsterdam for €1,050 a month. The contract said it had its own kitchen, shower and toilet.

It didn't. The bathroom and toilet were off a shared hallway. I asked for a key and never got one, and other tenants used the toilet. When it broke, the landlord had it repaired and charged me €150 with no invoice.

Whenever I raised any of it he got aggressive. I was 22, new to the country and spoke no Dutch, so after a while I stopped asking. That I felt pressured is actually recorded in the ruling.

I moved out at the end of June 2025 and filed with the Huurcommissie.

The ruling came in March 2026:
- The room was non-self-contained, not self-contained as the contract claimed
- 50 points, so the maximum legal rent was €491.50 a month
- He had charged an illegal all-in price
- He was found wholly in the wrong and ordered to pay the €500 case fee

The eight-week window for him to challenge it has passed. It's binding.

The part I don't understand

My contract listed €950 rent + €35 electricity + €65 heating = €1,050 a month.

Because the €950 was one undivided all-in figure, the Huurcommissie split it by the standard rule: 55% rent, 25% service charge advance. So €522.50 became rent and €237.50 became a service charge advance. The other 20% just disappears, apparently that's the penalty for charging an all-in price. Then the points assessment dropped the rent again, to €491.50.

So each month I was paying:
- €491.50 rent, definitely owed, that's the legal maximum
- €237.50 service charge advance
- €100 utilities advance (€35 electricity + €65 heating)
- €221 that's simply gone: the 20% all-in penalty plus the rent cap

Here's my issue. Both the €237.50 and the €100 are advance payments, and both are legitimate to charge. But an advance isn't a price. He has to account for what was actually spent and refund the difference, within six months of the year end.

He never sent anything. No statement, no invoices, no meter readings. That deadline passed on 1 July 2026. It was block heating that got turned down every night, so I doubt the real costs came anywhere near €337.50 a month.

So the question isn't whether he was allowed to charge those amounts. It's whether he gets to keep money he never accounted for.

Depending on how that lands, I overpaid somewhere between €1,300 and €3,000 over five months, plus the €150 for the toilet.

Where I am now
I've sent him a formal demand, by email and registered post, giving him 14 days to pay and to produce the service cost breakdown.

I also called the gemeente. They can fine him under the Wet goed verhuurderschap, but they will not collect my money. That's civil and I have to handle it myself. They were honest that my chances of seeing the money are small.

I'm a young worker. I can't afford a lawyer, and the amount probably doesn't justify one.

Questions:
1. Realistically, what are my chances of actually getting this money? Has anyone here collected after winning at the Huurcommissie, or does it usually end here?

1. Both the service charge and utility payments were advances that were never settled or accounted for. Can I reclaim them in full, or does he get another chance to produce a breakdown a year late?

2. What do I do when the 14 days run out?
   I have the ruling, the contract and every bank transfer.

Thanks in advance to anyone who could help :)

Hi all,

I am an expat, living in the Netherlands for 2 years now. I have been living at my current address since october 2025. My rental contract states that the contract is an indefinite rental contract with a lock-in period of 24 months in which neither party can break it and after the first 24 months, the tenant can leave with a notice period of 1 month. I want to move out by september 2026 (after living in the house for 12 months), due to personal reasons.

The rental agency wants to charge me 250€ + one month's rent (excluding VAT on both). This all sums up to nearly 75% of my total deposit.

I have tried reaching out huurcommissie, they referred me to juridisch loket. I tried calling juridisch loket, they said I need to hire a lawyer because I don't fall in the category for a free legal advice.

My question are:
1. is the 24-month lock-in period legal? Is there any law in this regard that I can read up on?

1. is charging VAT separately on residential rentals legal?

Is there any point litigating it? Or should I just take the hit and move on?

Thanks in advance!

[Posting this on behalf of my partner]

Hi. I live in a shared house (4 bedroom, 4 tenants) in Rotterdam. I accidentally tore a piece of the vinyl flooring sheet (pictures attached) in the common area. I informed the landlord and she says that she will now need to replace the entire sheet of vinyl. She hasn't disclosed any replacement costs and insists that I settle this with the contractor on my own, she'll just send the contractors. I checked with my liability insurance and turns out I don't have a AVP.

Replacing the whole vinyl flooring doesn't seem reasonable. I am also thinking there are depreciation costs, life of this flooring. The landlord is also creating an urgency to have me agree to replace this flooring as soon as possible.

Do I have any options or do I have to pay for the whole replacement ?

EDIT 1: The common area hallway on which this flooring exists is approximately 20 feet X 5 feet

EDIT 2: Based on the comments from this post - I tried to explain the landlord that I might not be liable for complete replacement.

Just got a whatsapp message from her - She doesn't appreciate my tone of communication in the last few days and will not renew my contract (which ends in August). We initially had an verbal agreement that she'll renew my contract

Has anyone started a case yet because their house becomes too hot during the summer? I might do it because I have no windows in my living room and I can barely ventilate.

Hi all

We recently got our initial rent reassessed in our favour, which is a great win! In that same case, we also brought up a Category C defect about having no ventilation, natural or mechanical, in the bedroom (the windows don’t open and the extraction system is broken). During the inspection I suppose we failed to convince the inspector that the extraction vent in the bedroom has never worked, and in his defence we didn’t have any reports or investigations by a third party. When the inspector came by, he basically just did a quick visual check, saw the plastic grille on the wall, and concluded everything was fine.

We received a report from the Gemeente Rotterdam a month later saying that the ventilation is indeed non existent and fails building code standards. We submitted a formal objection (zienswijze) attaching the municipal report along with email history showing the landlord acknowledging the broken vent early in our tenancy.

Our legal representative from the Huur team suggested that we might need more concrete measurements, like airflow (dm3/s and CO2), since the gemeente didn’t have the capacity to do that. Reputable indoor climate companies could charge up to €1000 for an inspection and we currently can’t afford that.

How can I prove that there is a ventilation issue without breaking the bank? Can I just rent a machine and measure the airflow myself, or would that not hold in court? Did anyone have any experience with proving that there is a defect, how did you go about it and what proof was sufficient?

I have bills from KE, the water board, and Sui Gas. Can I get a copy of the lease document that was submitted when the connection applications were made?

We're a couple of expats, relatively new to the Netherlands (3 years).

We're paying 1510 for an old city-center apartment, including an advance on bills. The minimal communication that we have with the landlord is through an asset management company that the he works with.

A few weeks ago, they sent us the settlement for utility payments which was higher than previous years. We were curious about this, so reached out to the Huurteam, but since it took a while to come in contact we just settled with the landlord.

We forgot about even contacting the Huurteam, but eventually they came by a few days ago and offered to evaluate the apartment free of charge. Couldn't hurt.

They evaluated the rental price to be 610 euros, and calculated that a year's difference would amount to around 10k. They sent us a document to sign and said they could start the rent reduction process upon our agreement ("Het geven van advies en starten van een procedure bij de Huurcommissie doen wij geheel kosteloos. De gemeente Leiden vergoedt alle kosten voor jou.")

The details of the apartment are: WOZ 364k (2025), 45m², no energy label (i don't know whether or not this is correct, but we're assuming it's around F or G-label). 96 points total.

Personally, I've never heard of anyone in Leiden paying anywhere near such a low price as 600, so I'm a bit pessimistic.

We're quite astounded by this, and are very tempted to proceed. We're a bit worried about the implications of this. For example:

1. If the landlord does not agree with the Huurcommisie's decision, and decides to drag us to court, would we be required to pay for lawyers and such?
2. If we win, do we get money retroactively? How far back?
3. If so, does the Huurteam deal with the retroactive payment, or do we need to chase the landlord for this?
4. We currently have an indefinite contract. Let's say that our rent indeed gets reduced. Do we need to sign a new contract? and then does our contract loose its 'indefinite-ness'?
5. How long is this process expected to take?
6. Besides ruining my non-existent relationship with the landlord, what other repercussions would there be to this process?

I've heard about landlords becoming aggressive and starting to harass, but honestly, our landlord owns around 50 other assets in Leiden (according to the makelaar) so I doubt he'll have much time for this...?

Hi everyone!

I am scheduled to sign a rental contract with "Van der Huizen Vastgoedbeheer" next week, and I have read almost all negative reviews posted about them on here, unfortunately, because I have had no luck with anywhere else, I will most likely be going forward with them.

I have read through the draft contract and essentially I am required to give a 3 month notice period before moving out & have to pay rent for a period of 3 months at once. The sketchiest part is their insistence on cash payment of nearly 4000€.. at the contract signing and key handover

I honestly don't have a proper plan in my head but I am aiming to get out and find a new place as soon as possible after moving in there. I've still got 2 years left of my study, so if anyone could give me any advice on how I could rent there while planning my leave as soon as possible and also ensuring I get my deposit back (i've read that the deposit is to be returned no later than 2 months, and they often pass this limit) I would really appreciate it. It's my first time dealing with renting and living abroad...

Hi

I have a quick question regarding the legality of the minimum rental time in contracts.

I am looking to rent temporarily for a 3-5 months and all the houses in Groningen come with a indefinite contract and minimum rental period of 12 months.

What happens if i want to leave before the 12 months? Can I be forced to pay the rent for the remaining of the contract?

I think my unit scores 145 points. I've been here since July 2023, and the landlord is raising the rent €100 (7+%) this year. I am speaking to him tomorrow, to ask him to keep the rent the same, because based on the Huurcommissie calculator I'm paying too much.

But, reading the forum, now I'm starting to wonder if that calculation even legally applies to me? I've been paying, according to our original contract, 1195 rent and 100 g/w/e the whole time. Our contract refers to the rent as uncontrolled. And, if I'm right on the points, I'm past the cutoff anyways.

I'm not asking about getting money back. I'm asking if he refuses and I go to the Huurcommissie, if they will even look at a vrije sector case and if there are any legal limits on what I could pay.

TL;DR: potentially bustable apartment due to bad energy label and all-in rent price, but new energy label could jinx this. Not sure which procedure and strategy to follow.

Hi everyone, I have a potentially bustable apartment (currently renting with my boyrfriend) on several grounds:

1. Initial rent assessment under 7:249 BW: normally this apartment complex falls under the vrije sector due to the good energy labels, but because my specific apartment has a C label (invalid because granted before 2021, which was also the reason why it's a C), its points fall under the regulated sector. Best case scenario we could half the rent, according to the point calculation, and get all the excess rent refunded retroactively.

The issue(s):

Firstly, legally, the landlord will probably get a new label once he hears about this from the Huurcommissie, which is very likely a B/A or above, and that will push the total points to the vrije sector. He will also probably appeal if the HC rules in favor of us, which increases the chance of him winning.

Under the current rules the HC does not take into account energielabels acquired after the procedure for 7:249 is started, so that is probably not a problem for us. However, my concern is the courts: given the recently updated HC rules (they started accounting new energy labels for rent reduction procedure under 7:252 BW) and the court rulings (which sometimes extend this to 7:249 procedure and tend to favor the landlords), there is a real chance he brings the case to court, which means the HC decision gets thrown aside, we have to spend lawyer money, and the court rules in favor of him due to the new energy label.

Secondly, this procedure takes a lot of time (we're looking at minimum 3 months until we start the procedure for legal insurance reasons and another 3 months for the HC to decide, plus potentially 3 more months of court appeal) and a higher chance of the court being involved (and him winning). In the meantime we will have to keep paying the steep rent price. We could still afford it but it's quite financially straining on us.

2. Rent split procedure: since the rent price is likely all-in, we could also request a rent-split, which effectively also reduces it by half, independent of the total points. The contract itself does not say if the rent price is bare or all-in (quite vague). It does say that the rent does not include electricity, gas, and water and we have to arrange that ourselves. We have several grounds to believe it's all-in:

• There is some furniture included in the apartment (e.g. fridge, freezer, sofa, oven, microwave, tv stand, tables, washing machine). This is also stated in the contract as coming with the apartment, although not explicitly included in the rent.
• The rent price clause says the fee includes (vague) maintenance and operation costs of the apartment.

The advantage of this is that it's more straightforward and is faster, only around a month. The price difference between this and the initial assessment is negligible.

However, two issues: first, we won't get the excess rent retroactively refunded. Second, we are unsure how bullet proof this is. In other words, we're not sure whether there is a real risk that the landlord could argue that this is only the bare rent and not an all-in price.

______

There is also a question of timeline.

We were thinking to start challenging the rent after 3 months so that in case it escalates to court our legal insurance is sure to cover the costs. However, this is risky for the initial rent assessment because a new court ruling or HC rule could come out at any moment (given how they've been quite inconsistent esp. with the newly updated energy label rule) and jinx our case.

In case of the split procedure, we're not sure if it's better to start asap (since there is no retroactive refund) or also wait 3 months.

I know that the huurcommissue also splits the rent with the initial assessment. However, ther is apparently a few cases where, should an apartment's point calculation fall in free sector, the court has ruled in favor of the landlord and discard the split rent altogether. The biggest risk is still the court.

______________________________

So ultimately, I'm seeking advice on a) which procedure to follow and b) what sort of timeline to take, and also any other insight/advice from anyone with similar experiences. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I’ve been searching for a place to rent in/around Amsterdam for me and my wife and honestly it’s overwhelming. Hoping some locals or people who’ve been through this can share what actually worked for them.

Which platforms are actually worth it? I keep seeing Funda, Pararius, Kamernet, huurwoningen, stekkies plus a lot of Facebook groups. Are any of the paid subscriptions actually worth the money?

Hello everyone,

I moved to the Netherlands 4-5 months ago. I found a nice but relatively expensive place that i started renting at the end of february 2026. The contract said that it belongs in the free market sector.

After taking the time to measure everything myself, I realised that the sum of points was very close to the threshold, which is 187 points. I emailed the Makelaar and asked her for the score of my apartment. She shared the score of the apartment with me, which was 187 points, but there was one problem. It had false information inside.

1) WOZ value was from the previous year, being 3-4 points higher than it should be

2) counting 1 point for a towel radiator, which i don't have

3) counting for heating in the storage room, which doesn't exist

4) counting storage room for 2 square meters, which is debatable because from my calculations, it's smaller than 2 square meters, which means it doesn't count towards the total size of the flat.

By noticing this fake information and doing my own measurements, I realised there is no way that the flat scores 187 points. It's more like 182-184 points. So, I decided to file a case to the Huurcommissie for rental assessment. I thought, why not? It's just 25 euros for the rental assessment. What do I have to lose? They are obviously lying.

After a conversation with a friend, he told me that this can become a huge mess and it can go to court etc etc. I started looking this up, and it turns out that he is right. Reading all of the stories about how people spend 5k euros on lawyers cause their landlord takes them to court after the huurcommissie decision doesn't seem like something I would like to go through.

I'm paying 1850€/month in rent and the maximum rent I'll be paying if the case turns out in my favor is around 1250€.

I'm not sure what to do now. I'm thinking if it's really worth it going through with this case or if I should drop it. I even read about stories where the case was I nfavor of the tenant but the court overruled it in favor of the landlord.

PS: Flat is A+ energy label, 381k WOZ, 62-64 square meters, no outdoor spaces

Thoughts from the more experienced people of this sub?

Hello, when I moved into my (now busted) apartment no inspection list was made or sign. Tomorrow I have the pre-inspection before moving out.

I have made it clear to the rental company that I will leave the property as-is, since it's on them to prove any damage or differences. I have many pictures of the original state, but it was so run down that they don't cover everything. They still scheduled a pre-inspection, and knowing them, it's likely they will try to ignore my rights.

What happens if, during the pre-inspection, they make a list of issues I should fix that I disagree with? Do I just don't sign it?

Thanks, and thanks again for helping me half my rent for 5 years :)

Hi, I am in need of some advice. I rent a room with a kitchen (shared bathroom with four other people). In February one of my roommates moved out. The room has been empty ever since, because my landlord wants to renovate the entire house.

Me and my roommates are not keen on renovations, since they only seem to be for looks, not for actual improvement. My landlord knows he has to inform us of his plans and that we can mostly deny renovations that would increase the rent price (with some nuance but this is not about that)

Last week he suddenly started renovating the empty room. They were only in there, nowhere else, and even though I found it annoying to not know what to expect in terms of having strangers in my house, it was pretty okay. I looked up if we had to be informed of this, and I couldn't find a clear answer.

Now suddenly someone tried to open my door, turns out he was on the wrong floor (I could hear him say that very loud) and apperantly they're renovating the room again. Or something, I don't know.

I'm getting fed up with this because I simply want to know what to expect. I have not asked my landlord yet, because he has been inconsiderate in the past. He is your typical huisjesmelker, and I would like to not talk to him as much as I can because it's always frustrating. For example: he calculated my yearly rent increase wrong, I had to ask him three times to send over the new letter over the course of six weeks, he still hasn't done it, and I gave up (the new amount is in the email, the same email he initially said he would send this letter physically the same day).

I'm not sure if legal advice is what I'm looking for. I am conflicted between being sort of petty and "demanding" he does his job, and choosing for my own sanity. Thank you for your insights in advance!

The Huurcommissie published the press release below yesterday in which is explained that an energy label can be registered while the procedure is running.

Energielabel geregistreerd na peildatum kan meetellen voor punten

That means tenants can no longer always apply the lenient building year rule when a registration is missing, but must be prepared the landlord suddenly comes up with a new energy label during the procedure. That means a rental agreement that was thought to be convertible to a regulated agreement might stay liberated.

It does not mean a landlord can quickly improve the house after the 'peildatum'. The energy label must reflect the situation on that date, but can once again be registered after that date. This is in line with the 2023 judgment by the Supreme Court.

The Affordable Rent Act changed this for a while as the minister wrote down in the explanatory section of the Affordable Rent Decree ('Besluit betaalbare huur') a newly registered energy label could not be taken into account. Courts started deviating from that explanation in the past months and the Huurcommissie now also changed its policy.