As many as three quarters of the reporters indicated that they pay a lot for heating the home, while they can do little to reduce that bill. The housing association therefore advocates tackling landlords who do not properly insulate houses.
Sealing windows with plastic
Anton (real name known to the editors) lives in the center of Amsterdam. For years it was with great pleasure, but now there is little question of living pleasure. “My whole apartment has single glass. The draft was so bad that I now nailed the windows shut with plastic.”
Anton lives in a rented house, so he cannot change the poor insulation of the house himself. “I did report it, but the landlord doesn’t want to start it.” It is therefore increasingly difficult for him to make ends meet. “I only have an old age pension and my energy costs are now so high that after rent and things like insurance I have to get by on 6 euros a day.”
Damoed from Amsterdam-West has a similar story. “I’m going to stay with friends more often,” he says. “Then I can turn off the stove.” Watch the video:
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Hotline for Housing Association
He, like hundreds of others, applied to the Hotline Energy Alarm of the Housing Association. They hear more and more often that tenants are having trouble making ends meet.
Due to rising rent and energy prices, people with housing benefit now spend about 40 percent of their income on housing costs. “The high energy prices affect precisely this group of people because they more often live in poorly insulated rental homes,” explains spokesperson Marcel Trip.
Cold and draft
For example, it appears that 84 percent of the reporters suffer from cold or draft in the home due to a poorly insulated home. And so the tenants like Anton do everything they can to compensate for the poor insulation.
“I heat as little as possible, I put on that infamous vest. I try everything to keep the bill low,” he says. “There are even curtains in the house between the living room and the hallway to block out the heat a bit more. You name something and I’ve tried it. But all the heat is gone through that single glass.”
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Tenant powerless
And Anton is not the only tenant with a single-glazed rental home. Of the reporters at the reporting center, 42 percent indicated that they still have at least one room in their rental home with single glazing. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of houses throughout the Netherlands do not yet have double glazing.
The housing association would like to tackle it together with the tenants, but it is still difficult to do so. “Half of the reporters have indicated to the landlord that they want better insulation or other measures. Eight out of ten do not get this,” said Trip. As a tenant of a poorly insulated home, you are often powerless.
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Incentives for landlord
“Single glass is not an official defect at the moment. As a result, it is difficult for you to enforce anything as a tenant.” The union wants single glazing to be a reason for possible rent reduction. Trip: “Only then will there be an incentive for landlords to insulate the home better. Single glazing is simply not of this time anymore.”
The union also advocates a rent freeze for poorly insulated homes. Otherwise, you’re going to pay more every year for the same poorly maintained home, Trip explains. Moreover, if this does not happen, tenants will be hit from both sides. “They will pay more for energy, but also for their rent.”
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Response of Minister Hugo de Jonge (Living)
The coalition agreement already stated that the cabinet wants to use ‘standards and positive incentives’ to convince landlords to make poorly insulated homes more sustainable. In addition, houses with poor insulation should no longer be rented out in the long term.
Hugo de Jonge emphasizes this once again: “I want to get rid of the homes with the worst label and I am going to talk to housing associations and private landlords to see when that can be done.”
Rent freezing or rent reduction is not ruled out by the Minister as a means. “We may have to agree that with landlords if it doesn’t work out quickly enough.” But exactly what that will look like is still unclear. De Jonge: “I hope to come up with an approach in May to say goodbye to the worst energy labels.”
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