Entering without permission, verbally abusing, and raising service charges arbitrarily

Sometimes landlords are reasonable individuals, and sometimes they are not. In the student city of Utrecht, the Huur Team typically interacts with the latter group. Students tend to approach the Huur Team only when they cannot resolve issues with their landlords themselves.

In a house in Utrecht, 11 students have been living for several years. The contact with the landlord hasn’t been too bad in the past. When something needed repairs, he usually wasn’t very responsive, but fortunately, not much broke.

However, the relationship with the landlord became strained when, due to rising energy prices, he started increasing the rent. Subsequently, there were a few more rent hikes in a short period. Student Lisa says, “The first increase was €20 per person, and then it gradually went up in steps by €60 and €80 per person.”

Naturally, the students didn’t agree with the continuously increasing rent prices and asked for access to their energy consumption data. But the landlord refused. That’s when the students decided it was time to reach out to the Renting Team. How did they find out about the Renting Team? “Through word of mouth, we heard some success stories.”

Lisa explains that this step went too far for the landlord. “It escalated almost immediately when he began to confront us in every possible way. He raised the rent again, was frequently in our house, and even threw things outside. Yes, the police were called, but they couldn’t do much.”

Currently, several procedures are ongoing to resolve the issues. How does the landlord behave now? According to Lisa, “The same, really. He constantly changes the locks, verbally abuses the students, and when he found out that the rent was too high, he increased the service charges.”

Lisa emphasizes the importance of students standing together. “It’s very frustrating that he behaves this way, but that’s not a reason for us to just let it go. After all, the Renting Team does nothing more than determine the correct rent price and hold the landlord accountable for his responsibilities. Sooner or later, he will simply have to accept that.”