What is the Rent Tribunal?
The Rent Tribunal is an impartial and independent dispute resolver for tenants and landlords. The Rent Tribunal offers assistance to tenants and landlords if they disagree on matters such as rent, maintenance, or service costs. They assess the dispute on the basis of legislation and regulations. They then issue a ruling that both parties must comply with.
Please note: the following only applies to tenants in the social or middle sector. Different rules apply to tenants in the private sector. These rules can be found on the Rent Tribunals website.
Rent reduction
As a tenant, you can assess the rent for your accommodation using the rent check. If this shows that your rent is higher than the maximum permitted basic rent, you can ask your landlord to reduce the rent. If the landlord does not agree or does not respond at all, you can initiate proceedings with the Rent Tribunal.
As a tenant, you must first send a letter to the landlord stating the following:
- The basic rent you currently pay, i.e., without service costs;
- The lower rent you propose based on the points system;
- How much you think the rent should be reduced by;
- The date on which the new rent should take effect. Please note: this cannot be earlier than two calendar months after you send the proposal.
The Rent Tribunal website explains how you can engage the Rent Tribunal.
Defects
If there are serious maintenance defects in your home, the landlord is obliged to repair them. You must send the landlord a letter listing the defects and requesting that they be repaired within six weeks. If you do not receive a response within six weeks or if the landlord refuses to repair the defects, you can contact the Rent Tribunal.
In the case of serious defects, the Rent Tribunal can temporarily reduce the rent. You will then pay a lower rent until the defects have been repaired.
The Rent Tribunal website explains how you can involve the Rent Tribunal.
Service costs
Once a year, you will receive an annual statement for the service costs from your landlord. The landlord must send you an annual statement for the previous year before July 1. If you have not received an annual statement by July 1, request one from your landlord by email or letter. If you have not received anything after three weeks, you can contact the Rent Tribunal, which will determine how much you have to pay.
If you disagree with the annual statement, first ask your landlord to adjust it. If you cannot reach an agreement, or if they do not respond to your email or letter within three weeks, you can contact the Rent Tribunal.
The Rent Tribunal website explains how to contact them.
All-in price
If you pay an all-in price, you don’t know how much of it is for the basic rent and how much is for additional costs, such as service charges and utilities. That’s why it’s often better to split an all-in price. To do this, you must first send a proposal to your landlord, stating that you want to split the all-in price and from what date the split should take effect. If your landlord does not want to split the rent or if you cannot reach an agreement, you can contact the Rent Tribunal. You can do this up to 6 weeks after the split date you proposed.
The Rent Tribunal website explains how you can contact the Rent Tribunal.
What matters does the Rent Tribunal not deal with?
The Rent Tribunal cannot rule on:
- Whether or not to allocate a property;
- Payment arrears;
- Disconnecting gas, electricity, or water;
- Terminating your lease;
- (The return of) the deposit you paid to your landlord.
What do we do?
We at Steunpunt Huren Groningen can initiate and conduct proceedings before the Rent Tribunal on your behalf, if necessary. If you want to initiate proceedings before the Rent Tribunal, you must pay €25 in advance as a tenant. If you win your case, this amount will be refunded to you
Questions?
Do you have any questions about this topic or anything else? Please feel free to contact us. You are also welcome to visit our walk-in consultation hours, every Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. In addition, we now have extra consultation hours every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the WIJ Oosterpark building. We are happy to help you.
