Landlords advertise homes as short-stay accommodation to avoid ban on temporary leases
Landlords have dusted off an old trick to avoid the recently introduced ban on temporary leases for rental homes. Instead of advertising their homes as regular rentals, they offer them as short-stay hotel accommodations, furnished and equipped with all kinds of conveniences. The lease for these types of accommodations is, per definition, temporary. It also allows the landlords to charge three times higher rent than in the regular housing market, Parool reports.
Earlier this week, the Rent Assessment Committee looked at one such case. An Italian expat had signed a one-year contract for a 34-square-meter home in mid-August. In the regular rental market, the rent for this home would be capped at 633 euros per month. But due to the short-stay agreement, the landlord can charge a rent of 1,850 euros, according to the newspaper.
In December, the Rent Assessment Committee concluded that the arrangement seemed dodgy, but it couldn’t rule on it because it was outside its jurisdiction. The tenant and the !Woon foundation requested a review. The Committee reconsidered the case on Monday.
During that hearing, the landlord’s lawyer argued that everything was legally in order. “It is actually just like a hotel. This is very different from a regular rental agreement. The owner of the property is trying to help expats get a foothold in their search for permanent housing,” the lawyer said. He stressed that the tenant had agreed to all the conditions in a video conversation recorded especially for that reason.
According to Parool, this was a common construction used by landlords before the government permitted temporary rental agreements in 2016. The Dutch government banned temporary rental agreements again on July 1 last year, saying that they had a price-raising effect and caused uncertainty for tenants.
The !Woon foundation, which represents the interests of tenants, is very concerned about these types of constructions. “This is all very cunning, it has been well thought out. A separate company has been set up for this rental, which is based on case law. And in addition to the rent, additional services are offered, such as a bicycle rental and clean sheets, which also seems to be inspired by law,” Imre Doff, a lawyer at the foundation, told Parool.
The lawyer spoke of a trend in which landlords experiment with contracts that are “short-term by nature.” Doff expects that landlords will continue to stretch the boundaries of the regulations. “If this is allowed, the floodgates will open,” she told Parool.
