Tenants lose out: CDA and VVD want to allow landlords to cancel the lease if they want to sell their house

Tenants lose out if their landlord is allowed to kick them out if they want to sell their property or have a family member live in it, say the PvdA and ChristenUnie. MPs from these parties do not think much of the "destructive amendments" tabled by the VVD and CDA after the debate on the issue.

"If the Kamer were to accept these amendments, this would have far-reaching consequences for legal rent protection in the Netherlands, compared to the current practice," Henk Nijboer of the PvdA and Pieter Grinwis of coalition party ChristenUnie wrote in a letter to the Tweede Kamer.

Government parties CDA and VVD want to make it possible for landlords to dissolve the rental agreement if they want to sell their house. The condition is that the landlord is a private individual who does not rent out more than one house and that this option is stipulated in the rental contract. Nijboer and Grinwis calculate that potentially over 200,000 tenants could be affected. They fear that landlords could abuse the rule by saying they want to sell their house as an excuse to evict tenants.

The CDA and VVD's other proposal is that the court does not have to weigh interests if a landlord wants to make room in a rental house for a first-degree relative. This proposal also undermines tenancy law, according to the letter writers, and can easily be abused, they say. A landlord who wants to get rid of tenants can then let a family member live in a rental house for a short time, the MPs believe.

Since 2016, a trend has established in the Dutch housing market that only fixed-term leases with a maximum term of two years are offered, Trouw reported. However, evaluations have shown that this tends to have a negative effect.

This is because the fixed-term contract of two years, which was then considered exceptional, is now, however, used by 30 percent of homeowners, the newspaper wrote. The consequences are that tenants receive an insecure housing offer and the rent price increases with each new tenant.

To combat this unfair tenancy, Nijboer and Grinwis have made it their goal to ensure that an open-ended contract once again becomes the norm. The proposal is supported by D66 and the left-wing opposition, according to Trouw.

Furthermore, Peter Kwint (SP) agreed with the objections of PvdA and ChristenUnie, he announced on Twitter. He also found it objectionable that the proposals were made after the debate on the subject last Tuesday. He does not think it shows the promised "new administrative culture" that the proposals can therefore not be discussed in a debate