Landlord wrongly charges over a million euros for service costs in Amsterdam

The housing company Change= has wrongly collected more than a million euros in service costs from tenants in Amsterdam, amounting to more than 900 euros per person in such fees, according to BNNVARA. These numbers were disclosed in a recent statement from Amsterdam's Stichting Woon about the company's Amsterdam-Zuidoost location.

The housing provider for working young people already got a reprimand from the District Judge this summer when it tried to collect "community costs" from its tenants alongside service costs. In the end, Change= combined these fees with service costs, tripling them. Although tenants paid social rental prices in theory, these added costs made their overall payments much higher.

"It is very clear from the ruling on the Zuidoost location that tenants have to pay far too much for, among other things, the internet, a caretaker and the inventory," said Tjerk Dalhuisen, spokesperson for Stichting Woon, to BNNVARA. "Anyone who has a temporary lease and does not pay the service costs pending the dispute risks losing their home."

Tenants also told BNNVARA that Change= encouraged a community of fear through surveillance. For example, one tenant who did pay the increased service costs, but left a negative message on Facebook about them, was informed in a phone call from an employee that she "no longer belonged to the Change= community" and must leave by May 1, she said. A Change= employee reportedly called another tenant a "prostitute" after she kissed her boyfriend in the hall of the building, which was seen via a hallway camera.

A subsidy of 250,000 euros was given to Change= for its youth housing locations in Amsterdam. The municipality of Utrecht, where Change= recently opened a location, is taking notice and trying to lock down "tighter agreements" on social housing service costs. The housing provider is also soon to open a location in the municipality of Enschede, which is also aware of the situation in Amsterdam. Both municipalities said no profit should be made from service costs.

Several tenants have had their contracts terminated because they did not pay the tripled service costs or spoke out against the prices. The Woonbond is pushing for temporary rental contracts to be dramatically reduced, because of the limited protection they give tenants in cases such as this, according to BNNVARA. "We really receive far too many such reports," said spokesperson Marcel Trip of the Woonbond.

Change= also has a location in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, where procedures are ongoing. The housing company denies the culture of fear tenants talked about, and that it has broken temporary contracts in retaliation against tenants.