Tenants suffer from new rental committee working method

Tenants are the victims of a ‘more efficient’ working method by the Rent Assessment Committee, whereby matters are settled in writing. Internal criticism of the introduction of the method was set aside. This appears from Saturday published research from research platform Investico and The Green Amsterdammer.

The Rent Assessment Committee can be called in by social tenants and residents of student rooms in the event of a dispute with the landlord about, for example, overdue maintenance or excessive service costs. In extreme cases, a rent reduction of 80 percent can be imposed. Due to the increasing number of untreated rental disputes, the committee decided at the end of 2020 to more often pass judgment on the basis of a paper file, instead of holding a hearing on the dispute.

Commission members state in an internal advice, which is in the hands of Investico, that this method is “unlawful” and “unsustainable”. Vulnerable tenants would be the victims of this method because they are sometimes less able to get their story on paper. They would more often benefit from a hearing to explain their case. According to rental advisers, the quality of the judgments has deteriorated since the written procedure has become the norm.

According to Investico sources, the current arrears and new working methods are related to the reduced budget of the Rent Assessment Committee. In ten years, this would have fallen from 23 to 14 million euros. Also, 34 of the 49 session locations in the country were closed and the number of committee members fell from one hundred to forty. Commission chairman Asje van Dijk denies to Investico that the quality of the statements is declining and states that the budgets are not falling, but that there is “a fluctuation”.

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