Eight landlords and housing management agencies who run 18 apartment complexes in Amsterdam between them are responsible for the bulk of complaints made to tenants’ rights foundation Woon over the past three years, the Parool reported at the weekend.

They operate a combined 8,000 homes in the capital, which mainly provide housing for students and young internationals, the paper said.

Woon says the complaints are just the tip of the iceberg, because it is only aware of problems if tenants are actively seeking help to deal with their landlords. Students and international workers are often unaware of their rights or are only planning to stay a short time, the foundation said.

The main complaints reported by tenants are bad maintenance, too-high service charges and additional fees for “community” services, and in some cases threats and intimidation, Woon said.

In particular, the number of complaints about illegal service charges have soared in the past 10 years. After the economic crisis of 2015, lots of new complexes with hundreds of small apartments came on the market and “landlords regard service costs as a way of making money”, Woon’s Gert Jan Bakker told the paper.

Sometimes landlords add extra charges for “community” or “membership” fees for additional services such as a gym or office space, as was the case with Change=, which ordered the housing management company to refund hundreds of tenants in 2024.

Membership and community fees are not allowed, Utrecht housing law professor Ton Jongbloed told the paper. “Judges see through this straight away,” he said. “You are not allowed to make all these additional fees compulsory.”

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Amsterdam city council launched a campaign earlier this year to better inform newcomers to the city about their rights when it comes to rental housing.

Rent tribunals

Landlords are allowed to charge service costs for cleaning, electricity in the communal areas, water, garden maintenance and concierge services and are supposed to send tenants a statement detailing the fee by July 1.

They are not allowed to make a profit on service costs but tenants can end up with a supplementary fee if their landlord has not charged enough.

The calculations are complex for small private landlords but some “commercial landlords are going as far as they can to increase their income via the service costs,” the rent tribunal organisation said in its 2024 annual report.