Dutch rent tribunals (huurcomissie) dealt with 9,991 complaints last year, mostly focusing on poor facilities and maintenance, or wrongful service costs, according to the organisation’s 2019 annual report.

Most complaints (1,656) were made by people living in Amsterdam, followed by Rotterdam and The Hague.

Complaints were ruled justified in 43% of cases, down from 57% in 2018. The decrease is down to complaints about rent rises – in 2019, 90% of complaints about the annual rent increase failed.

At the same time, 80% of tenants who complained about service costs won their cases as did 70% of those who protested about the high rent within six months of signing a contract, the organisation said.

Rents for houses in the social housing sector in the Netherlands are calculated according to a complicated system of points, with scores for having central heating, mixer taps in the bathroom and outside space.

Properties for which the maximum rent – according to the points system – is more than €730 fall into the non-rent controlled sector.

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