Fungi and rats are advancing in rental properties

Leaks in the living room, wood rot under a balcony, rattling windows, rat pests – the rental committee received almost 30 percent more things about this type of (maintenance) defects than the year before. Almost one in three cases about defects that the committee has dealt with is about mold in the rental home.

This is evident from the annual report for 2024 that the Rent Committee has Wednesday published. More than 5,800 so-called defects cases were registered last year, 1,300 cases (29 percent) more than in 2023 and one and a half times as much as in 2022. Schimmel played an important role in 1,525 of the 5,200 (30 percent) defects issues-often in combination with moisture problems.

« Due to leaks from outside, a large part of the side wall in the common stairwell is wet, » the architect of the Rent Committee, for example, noted in a home in Friesland. « As a result of the moisture, the stucco was released and dropped out and mold is visible on the wall. »

Fungi can lead to serious health problems, such as breathing problems. Last month it showed it Housing Research Netherlands 2024 All that one in five houses suffer from fungus, against one in seven three years earlier. A possible explanation for this is, so the researchers suggested in this residential report that residents of economy started burning and ventilating less due to the energy crisis, making houses moist and fungi can grow.

Indeed, « high energy costs (reduced heating) can play a role in, for example, fungal formation » « in addition to an outdated housing stock, the rental committee writes in the annual report. » If you invest less in old homes, then the quality deteriorates and, for example, moisture and fungal problems can arise, « says a residential expert in the report. According to him, corporations have spent less money on maintenance between 2013 and 2023 than the years before, due to the landlord tax.

Staking and ventilation are the responsibility of the tenant, just like very small maintenance jobs that you can do – in the words of the annual report – « with two left hands » such as replacing a crane leather. The architectural quality and the state of maintenance is the responsibility of the landlord: a corporation or a private homeowner. To find out who or what is the cause of a reported defect, architects from the Rent Committee in 2024 did more than 3,300 investigations – almost a third more than in 2023.

« If the fungus is mainly behind a radiator, it may be that the tenants do not heat enough, » says Pieter Heerma (47), chairman of the Rent Committee for a year. « In the majority of cases, our studies indicate that the cause of fungus, for example, lies in a architectural defect or overdue maintenance. » So the Rent Committee often decides that the landlord has to remedy the defects, often with a temporary, often substantial rent reduction as a means of pressure.

‘Discussion of affordability’

Heerma’s affinity with Wonen dates from 2019, he says, when he became the party chairman of the CDA in the Lower House: « That summer the first terraced house was offered for more than a million euros for sale. And more than 800 registrations came on a social rental home in a municipality ». It was this « pressure on the housing market » that Hema made to decide the somewhat forgotten concept of «  » public housing « on the political agenda.

The fact that the pressure on the housing market has only become greater since then, they notice at the rental committee on the increase in the number of cases. Last year a total of more than 18,000 cases arrived at the committee, almost 30 percent more than in 2023 and one and a half times as much as in 2022. It was not only about defects, but also service costs, the rental price (the points) and the increase in the rent.

The largest risers were the disputes about the rent increase, which increased 60 percent in number.

According to Heerma, this increase is possible because the rents were allowed to be considerably increased last year: « That led to a social discussion about the affordability of living. » As a result, more people probably went to the rental committee.

In the vast majority of rent increases, the committee ruled that the landlords correctly implemented the increase. « The rent increase may also explain part of the increase in the number of cases about defects, » says Heerma. « The defects were able to play for some time, but tenants were able to decide by the rent increase to report it to us now. »

Tenants are often right in the case of matters about defects. What does that say about the state of the Dutch housing stock?

« We cannot make a statement on the basis of a few thousand things about the several million rental homes in the Netherlands. But we do see a significant increase in the number of defects cases; that increase may be related to overdue maintenance. For us, that increase is really a point of care, because, for example, black fungus gives serious health risks. »

Even after a ruling from the Rent Committee, landlords often do not remedy the defects, an ‘impact investigation’ that the committee has had done. Although those statements are binding, the rent committee cannot force the lessor to remedy the defect. With the ruling, tenants can go to the subdistrict court judge, but in practice they often do not do that. A corridor to court is complicated and expensive. « This is an undesirable situation that does not do justice to problems that the tenant is experiencing, » the committee writes.

Is this not frustrating for you?

« We get a lot of things back every year, because the tenant and landlord do not agree on whether the defect has been resolved or not. That is a low number for us, and an indication is that it is actually going well for many.

« At the same time, we have signals from cases in which defects are not or are not remedied. Reduction of the rent as an extra stick behind the door does not have the desired effect. That is at least a concern. »

Do you not want the authority to enforce compliance with statements?

« I am reluctant to ask for such a power, because it is ultimately up to politics to give it to us. We do note that our statements do not always have the desired effect. »

Although the Supreme Court has stipulated that judgments of the rent committee must be leading, subdistrict court judges often deviate from it. Is that not a problem?

« The impact research shows that our architectural reports and our policy books are often leading at the subdistrict court judge-even more than we thought. We have discussions with the judiciary about the cases in which the judge’s judgment is deviating from our decision. »

Reporting a case to the rent committee costs 25 euros as a tenant. As a body, are you really accessible to everyone?

« For that amount, a architectural report is often made for disputes that otherwise you would cost hundreds of euros. In recent years we have done a lot for the low threshold, such as shortening waiting and lead times, strengthening our customer contact center and accessible language. We must continue to work on it. Incidentally, tenants with a very low income can be eligible for exemption from the 25 euro.

« The tenancy law is complicated, some tenants and landlords are low -literate. We also see large regional differences in matters that are presented to us: there are many from the five major cities and much fewer parts of the Netherlands. »

« At the same time, people know how to find us better and better: for example, the use of the Rental Prize Check has doubled. That ‘Familiarity with’ may play a role in the increase in the number of things. »

Tenants also often get right in matters about increased service costs. Are the service costs secretly a way in which landlords hope to increase their income?

« It is not intended that landlords make a profit on service costs. It is not inconceivable that this happens anyway, but I can’t say anything about individual motives of landlords. Errors are also quickly made, because service costs are complicated. Landlords are not allowed to know whether they may include certain facilities in the service costs, like a new package of the hall. that the tenants are the same in the majority of items on service costs. « 

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