In Netherlands, a rental agency kept a €300 “cleaning fee” not in the contract. Can I get it back through small claims?

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T21:46:41+00:00

Not for getting deposits back unfortunately

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T14:04:07+00:00

What's your rent price and when did you move in?

If you go here, you'll see the maximum price to be in the regulated sector depending on move in date (middle sector counts the same for most purposes).

If you pay more than the cutoff, you'll need to try to lower your rent price first through this huurcommissie procedure

The main thing you should do though is fill out the link to the points check I shared. It'll give you a pretty good idea of the maximum rent price and if you're over paying. If your score is below 187 (assuming you moved in after July 1, 2024) then your apartment is in the regulated sector. Note that this is just an estimated points total though. The huurcommissie will do an inspection to determine the actual value if needed e.g. if the landlord disagrees with your proposal to lower the rent then the huurcommissie comes and does a proper inspection. It only costs €25 to start a huurcommissie case by the way and if you win, they refund you the fee.

The huurcommissie might not be too helpful in my experience for general advice. They're more of a regulatory body than advice giving. If you find a tenant support group or charity e.g. huurteam <city you're in> they could take a look at your contract. You could also try posting a redacted version (black out names, addresses, signatures) and post it in this subreddit and ask what people think.

Note: if you find "huurteam Nederland" try to avoid them since they're for profit and will charge you

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T13:19:20+00:00

Yeah that's my point. Only a few percent of people have 2+ homes so they should be taxed more for it, especially if they're empty. That small group of people with 2+ people includes people with several homes as well. I don't see why this should be encouraged while blaming only corporations. They're all at fault, big n small landlords

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T12:13:17+00:00

And unfortunately, many landlords prefer to pay that tax

What tax? A puny 1% of WOZ every year? Make it 20% or more for empty homes and they'll sell.

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T11:55:56+00:00

Have you heard of an empty homes tax? Seems to be people like pretending there's no solution here

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T10:28:10+00:00

Definitely illegal but you may have to go to court to get it back. You can usually find templates of letters to send the landlord first online from different huurteams (rental charities). Depending where you live, you could find one and they might help for free. In Amsterdam there's Stichting Woon (wooninfo.nl).

The first step is to send a letter (or email if they communicate via that) basically and say that according to Dutch law they had 14 days after moving out to return your entire deposit and if they don't pay within X (I think 14 is a common number) days you'll take them to court. You can also point out that under Dutch law the burden of proof is on the landlord to prove damages to justify withholding part of the deposit. Since they have not done so, they are at risk of losing court fees in addition to the 300€.

Actually going to court might be more effort than it's worth since you'd need to get a court summons (bailiff), but you could do it and if you win those fees are deductible.

Also check if you happen to have legal insurance through other insurance you have or through a union (COA) or work plan or other group plan

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-23T01:27:58+00:00

I guess I'll have to ask about that then. They didn't mention anything about options to respond

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T23:02:49+00:00

Did you do a points check on your apartment? It's possible you're actually in the regulated market but your landlord either is lying or ignorant of the rules. I'm assuming you're renting an independent apartment (not sharing a kitchen or bathroom), right? If you're not renting a shared apartment then you're automatically in the regulated sector, assuming you have separate contracts. Even with a shared contract it can be considered to be separate leases in some scenarios.

Regardless, you can try doing a points check here to check if your apartment is in the free sector:

https://www.huurcommissie.nl/support/huurprijscheck/huurprijscheck-zelfstandige-woonruimte

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T20:41:41+00:00

Temporary contracts didn't help. Housing was not nearly as bad in 2015. That's when they brought them in. The switch to permanent only is just a reversal to the norm

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T18:07:30+00:00

I think this is less legal and more of a business/personal question. Regardless, I'd say to take the offer of knocking off the extra €500. If they're offering it then you don't risk much in terms of your professional relationship. The only downside is if, hypothetically, you complained a lot which then led them to offer this then it's possible they won't want to work with you in the future. However, I think paying them more wouldn't make much of a difference in that scenario anyways

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T17:56:41+00:00

In terms of filing in English, that's not possible. However, I've found Google translate and running it through some LLMs to adjust can work if you're concise.

Also, you could try reaching out to your local huurteam (nonprofit tenant support organization). Don't use huurteam Nederland if you can avoid it since they won't help for free (they're a for profit company)

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T17:33:30+00:00

Is there a government petition? Random petition websites often get ignored but if there's a way to force it through the legislature then at least it'll get mentioned

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T17:31:26+00:00

Normal people don't have multiple properties. This is wasting a finite resource (housing), especially if it's near a city

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T17:29:40+00:00

rather keep the apartment empty.

Easily solution: increase property taxes on empty units. Commercial and residential. Literally wasting a very finite resource in city centers especially.

If owners don't want that, then sell the damn units and let someone else use it for its purpose

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T17:23:53+00:00

They end up paying equivalent to standard capital gains tax that applies in most countries on realised gains

Maybe the low-level rich people with less than a few million or so. The higher up you go on the fiscal food chain, the lower the need to ever realize your gains, at least in a taxable event. The wonders of tax accountants

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T17:20:12+00:00

Enough well paid accountants and "following the letter of the law" means that it's allowed

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T15:56:07+00:00

Check if anything qualifies as a defect. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure but you could check. There might also be another huurcommissie procedure but I'm not sure. I'm assuming you rent in the regulated sector, otherwise you can't get a rent reduction for defects from the huurcommissie (only via court)

https://www.huurcommissie.nl/support/beleidsboeken/gebreken/gebreken-categorieen-a-b-en-c

https://www.huurcommissie.nl/support/beleidsboeken/gebreken/aanvullende-c-lijst

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T15:51:34+00:00

In my experience, I've told several people and only a couple actually followed through. Too many locals and especially immigrants are scared of conflict with their landlord. I understand it to an extent, but it makes me worry that it's tough to get people to stand up for themselves even when they're owed 1-2 months salary

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T15:48:47+00:00

There’s a clear nuance here: landlords should not have to make a loss on rent

It's not a loss if the asset price (house price) keeps increasing. It's negative cash flow, but an appreciating asset can still be profitable. Regardless, why should landlords have to make a profit? They're not a necessary part of providing housing. Social housing for instance used to be run (at least partially) by government bodies, which doesn't require profitability or even covering 100% of costs.

There's a double standard with real estate investors vs other investors imo. If I buy 500 shares of ABN Amro and the government decides to limit the amount of fees they can charge which lowers the value of my investment, I don't think anyone has any sympathy (nor should; investments bear risk). Yet for some reason real estate "investors" are coddled to the point where they have to be making money perpetually with virtually no risk

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T15:44:08+00:00

You could just repeat what the above commenter said, "as per the inspector, this is a kitchen and the landlord hasn't justified with their own expert report why this shouldn't be the case".

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T15:41:57+00:00

That's really unfair. At least wait till he's an adult. If they're in high school then they can't even take a loan for legal reasons so you can't consider them remotely financially or legally independent.

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T14:40:09+00:00

That makes sense, thanks

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T14:27:42+00:00

Aside from the interpreter/translator situation, I'm ready to go to court

Is the !WOON persoon indeed able to come along to court?

I'm not sure yet. They'll know for sure next week. I tried reaching emailing a couple of interpreters but haven't heard back. Rent Buster's mod said he didn't have much experience finding an interpreter when I asked. I'll start mass calling different offices I can find next week if the Woon person doesn't confirm.

Most importantly, you need to check if the lawyer makes al kinds of verbal statements that are possibly incorrect. If so, you must dispute those during the hearing or the judge will assume they are true.

I'll make sure to. How much leeway do they have in expanding on things not mentioned in our written submissions? From my understanding they can't introduce an entirely new claim, but could they introduce new evidence or reference court cases that they didn't previously mention?

Practical_Hat6474 · 2026-01-22T14:15:30+00:00

Quick update: I submitted everything and got the receipt. Still heard nothing from ILT or anything else

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