Tenants go to court over ‘unfair’ rent rises in the free sector

Some 540 tenants living in properties without rent controls have gone to court to prevent CBRE and property manager Nationale-Nederlanden from increasing their rents on July 1.

According to Dagblad Financial, this is the first time that such a large group of tenants has used case law to challenge their landlords. The group wants has the court to freeze their annual rent increase, now that several district courts have put a stop to the action of large institutional investors.

The dispute surrounds rental agreements with a standard clause stating that rent will increase in line with inflation more And optional amount which varies from one owner to another but is generally between 3% and 5% of the monthly rent.

Investors such as Bouwinvest, Amvest, ASR and Vesteda have all lost cases brought by tenants who claimed the annual rent increase was both “unfair” and contrary to EU consumer protection rules. This, they say, has led for years to tenants in the free sector finding themselves faced with rents that are too high.

The Supreme Court is currently reviewing the arguments used by lower courts to conclude service of tenants. Until that decision, tenants say, they should not have to pay a rent increase – set by the government at a maximum of 5.5% this year.

“You cannot expect tenants to pay a rent increase on July 1 that is based on what the courts have called an unfair clause in the rental contract,” their lawyer Danish Siddiqui of Forsyte Advocaten told the newspaper. . “That would be unacceptable. Our request is simple. Refrain from raising rents until the Supreme Court provides clarity.

CBRE and NN confirmed they had received legal documents but declined to comment further, the FD said.

But lower courts ruled there needed to be a “clear and transparent” explanation of how and why the owner invokes the additional clause and said the current situation is both unfair and contrary to EU regulations on consumer protection.

The owners argue that the courts went too far in eliminating both the optional increase and the inflation-related increase. If the Supreme Court upholds this position, owners say it will cost them dearly billions of euros.

Since 2021, the government has limited the maximum rent increase in the unregulated sector to inflation plus 1% or the average wage increase plus 1%, whichever is lower.

MEPs recently voted in favor of continuing this process until 2027.