Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning Hugo de Jonge wants to put an end to abuses in the rental sector. He wants to tackle undesirable rental practices with the new Good Landlord Act, and the House is debating this law today.
According to political reporter Leendert Beekman, Minister De Jonge wants to tackle the abuses by, among other things, standardizing the behavior of landlords. ‘For that you have to think of stopping discrimination, intimidation, poor maintenance, too high rents, you name it,’ says Beekman. ‘And with the bill, the municipality will have the tools to better deal with dishonest landlords. In other words: more enforcement.’
Almost the entire House of Representatives therefore argues that things are really that bad with the rental of homes, Beekman continues. GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver speaks of ‘the wild west’, and CDA MP Jaco Geurts calls intimidation, threats and discrimination ‘common abuses’.
‘Not industry wide’
Although editor-in-chief Ebru Umar of platform Overwaar.de acknowledges the abuses, she emphasizes that they are not industry-wide. She argues that if there were industry-wide abuses, every tenant would complain. “But it is not at all in the interests of landlords and investors to rent out bad properties,” she says. ‘And that’s not happening. But no one will deny that there are excesses. Every investor wants to be able to sleep peacefully, and the only way to do that is by renting out good real estate, renting it out neatly, having good tenants and therefore having a good relationship with them.’
Excel sheet for wrong tenants
The Council of State shares the criticism, reports Beekman. He first wanted to see substantiation as to whether the situation is really that bad, instead of just a gut feeling. ‘We don’t have an Excel sheet for every landlord with what they have all done wrong,’ said Minister De Jonge. “But the evidence supporting this law is more than anecdotal.”
De Jonge, for example, cited the knowledge that about half of the private landlords, who rent social housing for about 750 euros per month, demand more. And so, according to De Jonge, there are abuses, or so Beekman thinks.
In the Chamber, however, warnings are issued by the VVD, among others, that the good threaten to suffer from the bad. Beekman: ‘The new law will add a lot of regulatory pressure,’ he concludes.
