Amsterdam politician wants to tackle housing platforms that "facilitate" excessive rents
According to the D66 in Amsterdam, housing platforms are violating the Affordable Rent Act by allowing landlords to advertise homes for rents that clearly do not comply with rent regulation. In a series of questions, D66 spokesperson Suleyman Aslami asked the mayor and aldermen to tackle these platforms that “facilitate excessive rents.”
Since the Affordable Rent Act extended the points system that already applied to social housing to also cover mid-market rentals, there have been many reports of landlords bypassing this rent regulation. For example, they offer their rental homes under “short stay” contracts, ask prospective tenants to waive their rights, or simply ignore the rent regulation.
Many of the reports of these abuses stem from investigative journalists analyzing advertisements on housing platforms. The D66 feels that the presence of these “illegal” ads on widely used housing sites awards them a sense of legitimacy and might make desperate home seekers more likely to accept them.
According to Aslami, the authorities need to tackle landlords who charge excessive rents. But the platforms that host the ads are not blameless either.
“These homes have a rent that is not legally permitted. Nevertheless, these homes are listed with illegal rents on widely used rental websites such as Kamernet, HousingAnywhere, and more,” Aslami said. “In this way, these platforms contribute to undermining the affordable Rent Act and facilitating excessive rents.”
The D66 politician wants to know whether the Amsterdam mayor and aldermen are aware that landlords are violating rent regulations and that housing platforms are simply allowing it. He also wants to know how the city authorities plan to act against this practice.
Among other things, he suggests reminding housing platforms of their responsibility to moderate their ads, actively informing tenants of their rights and common abuses on housing platforms, and pressing regulators to act against housing platforms that facilitate illegal rents.
