On March 21, 2023, the upper house of the Dutch Parliament, the Senate, approved the Good Home Ownership Bill (wetsvoorstel goed verhuurderschap). Municipalities (gemeente) now have more options to protect tenants from abusive rentals. The law introduces a standard for good housekeeping and provides municipalities with opportunities to influence landlords. In particular, municipalities will be able to put forward additional requirements for homeowners on the maintenance of houses and set the maximum rent for social housing.
The bill seeks to prevent discrimination and intimidation of tenants, to prevent inflated rents and unreasonable rates for property maintenance.
Rental permit
Municipalities will have the right to put forward requirements for property owners, without which it is prohibited to rent out housing. First of all, this right will be applied in areas with socially vulnerable population. Practice has shown that in such areas, landlords often set high rents that do not correspond to the quality of housing, serve housing poorly, rent out premises to a large number of people, violating sanitary standards. Tenants are forced to agree to this, intimidating the possibility of being left without a roof over their heads.
How can municipalities influence unscrupulous homeowners?
Municipalities gain the right to issue warnings and fines to homeowners. As a last resort, a homeowner who violates the rules may be removed from property management. It is assumed that municipal enforcement measures will be applied to homeowners from less severe to more severe, that is, first a warning, then a fine, then removal from home management.
Nalog.nl reminds you that the standard deadline for filing a tax return in the Netherlands is from March 1 to April 30 inclusive. Find out if you need to file reports with the tax authorities and how to order this service, here.
Publication Date: 31.03.2023
