3 reactions to this article

M.S. posted: 2008-07-20 15:18:14

I am looking for some information about my situation and what actions I could take. As I am not Dutch and not familiar with the language nor the system, I hope I could find someone who could provide me with answers.

My situation is following. In August 2007 I signed a rental agreement for an apartment together with my girlfriend. We moved to the Netherlands because of my work and her university studies. At that time an agency introduced us an apartment that was interesting. One concern of us was the coffee shop located right downstairs of the property. We were doubtful regarding possible noise and trouble with the coffee shop as we would never move close to a bar. Both of us are from Finland and the concept of coffee shops was relatively new to us. There for, the person from the agency assured us twice that the bar is under strict control of the government and there will be no harm in any way by the coffee shop.

After we signed the rental contract and moved in we had to face loud music from the first night on, caused by the coffee shop. Being tired after moving and starting a new job and university program it took us more than a month to make a claim for the first time. We were in direct contact with the landlord, the agency that introduced us the apartment and the police. Music until 23:30 every night, scary people hanging out in front of the coffee shop and a lot of traffic around the block were disturbances we experienced almost every night. Our claims achieved nothing.

In January (after the agency promised us in November that all coffee shops will be removed from the city center by the government by the end of the year, and still nothing happened) we had no choice but to terminate the rental agreement. Since we had a contract for a year the landlord refused to pay back the money deposit of 2000 euro. The agency that introduced us the property received from us a commission of ca. 1000 euro, which clearly proves that they were handling with financial intension. They earned a provision thru our commission paid for a property that did not match it’s criteria when we were assured: “no harm will be caused by the coffee shop and if necessary the police will take action and act against the bar”. Our decision to rely what we were assured caused us a loss of 3000 euro, additional moving costs and half a year of disturbances.

Could anyone tell us who we could contact or where we could get help regarding our situation.

CB posted: 2009-08-24 17:10:57

Could someone shed light on the notice period required on a fixed term contract that has run over the 12 months.

I am now in my apartment 18 months on a 12 month contract, the contract is expired but I have continued living and paying rent.
I moved in in the middle of a month 18 months ago and paid for the extra days. But now giving a months notice in the middle of a month to quit in the middle of next month seems to be an issue.

They are saying that by virtue of paying rent on the 13th month I entered into a new 12 month contract and that I must give notice from the 1st of the month and at no other time.

I am worried I will not get my deposit back, I am willing to allow them to show the apartment as much as possible, and will leave it as I have been keeping it in perfect order. but this is making me worried that they will make me pay for half a month I will not be resident in the apartment.

What can I do?

HS posted: 2012-03-31 11:36:52

Dear Mike:

You mentioned above that in a fixed term contract where the landlord is an investor, the tenant may terminate the contract in which he gives one month's notice. Can you cite the exact Dutch legal code which states this and/or other Dutch law which would help a tenant leave this kind of contract early for reasonable reasons?

Thanks so much,

Helen S. Park