[ archief ] [ENGLISH] Renting contract

[sciamannikoo]

Hallo allemaal,

Sorry for writing English, but I don't speak yet Dutch.
I hope someone will read and reply anyway.

This is the situation.

Back on October 2009, my current flatmate "lost" his flat mate and was in need of a new person willing to share the apartment (and the rent).

At that time I was living in Utrecht, but as I was thinking to move to A'dam, I decided to take advantage of this problem, helping my friend and myself at the same time.

The guy that was leaving informed about the the makelaar and my friend informed about my arrival.

A contract wasn't signed immediately and I entered in the house around October the 15th.
After one or two weeks, we managed to have an appointment with the agent to sign the new contract with our names, replacing the old one that was signed by my friend and the guy that meanwhile left the house.
However, the day of the appointment, the agent wrote an email informing that the owner didn't want to renew the contract (talking about the old one) as he broke with his girlfriend and need the house for himself.
The old contract is supposed to expire at the end of February 2010.

Now, for my point of view there is something wrong.
I understand the owner's issues, I really do, but I don't think he has been completely fair (legally speaking).

Therefore have several questions that I would like to have clarified.

First of all, the current contract (the one signed by my current flatmate and the person who left) is still valid? A contract signed by two people, one of which is not living anymore in the house, neither in the country, is still valid?

As a person actually living in this apartment, as the owner knew I was entering in this apartment, don't I have the right of a new contract? Or to stay at least 6 months starting from October (therefore until April)?

Since the owner doesn't want to agree about that, can I stop paying at all, leaving as agreed (or better, as asked by the owner) at the end of February?

Even better, as I've spent some money for the moving (I had to hire a moving company), and as he informed about the contract expiration just one week after this moving, I would also ask if I have the right of a refund for the moving costs.

The last thing is that in all these months I didn't have the chance to register the new address, because I don't have a valid contract.
Since I've asked TNT to forward all my mail from the old address to the new one, when I'll move to the new house I will have few troubles doing that again, as I will have to forward my mail from two different addresses (providing that this is possible).

Really, this situation created me few issues and, again, even if I understand the owner's issues, I think I still have some rights.

The problem is that looks like he's taking advantage of the fact that we are foreigners, because many of my colleagues and Dutch friend keeps telling me that I have some rights, but none of them are able to clearly tell me what I can do and what I cannot do.

Thanks for reading till here.

Andrea

[VioletPrue]

First of all, the current contract (the one signed by my current flatmate and the person who left) is still valid? A contract signed by two people, one of which is not living anymore in the house, neither in the country, is still valid?

Yes, it is still valid, as there is no new contract to replace it.
It doesn't matter weather the friend is living in the Netherlands or not, it is his signature.

As a person actually living in this apartment, as the owner knew I was entering in this apartment, don't I have the right of a new contract? Or to stay at least 6 months starting from October (therefore until April)?

No, you have no rights.
You only have a verbal agreement and since there is a written contract where the friends name is on, he has more rights.
To put it bluntly: a written agreement trumps a verbal agreement.

Since the owner doesn't want to agree about that, can I stop paying at all, leaving as agreed (or better, as asked by the owner) at the end of February?

Yes you can, since there is no written contract and better yet, you legally never lived there.

Even better, as I've spent some money for the moving (I had to hire a moving company), and as he informed about the contract expiration just one week after this moving, I would also ask if I have the right of a refund for the moving costs.

No, since there is no record of you ever moving, you have no rights.
You never legally registered that you moved and therefor have no right of compensation.

The last thing is that in all these months I didn't have the chance to register the new address, because I don't have a valid contract.
Since I've asked TNT to forward all my mail from the old address to the new one, when I'll move to the new house I will have few troubles doing that again, as I will have to forward my mail from two different addresses (providing that this is possible).

Which sucks, but it's something you have to do.

Really, this situation created me few issues and, again, even if I understand the owner's issues, I think I still have some rights.

The problem is that looks like he's taking advantage of the fact that we are foreigners, because many of my colleagues and Dutch friend keeps telling me that I have some rights, but none of them are able to clearly tell me what I can do and what I cannot do.

Thanks for reading till here.

Andrea

Just a tip for the next time (which I think you may have figuered out already, but still) always, always get things in writing, even if you think you can resolve things amicably.
Even if it is an agreement with friends, get it in writing and always sign contracts to move into a house before you move and make costs.
That way, you are protected in situations like these.
Now you're not.
I'm sorry for your situation.

[sciamannikoo]

VioletPrue, thank you for your clear and very straight answers.

I think I will end up paying the remaining months, as I don't want to put in troubles my flatmate.

I still think that this way isn't fair, but you're right: there is nothing written (except the email messages exchanged that, I suppose, have no legal value on this country).

Sure enough, in the future I will never put myself in this kind of situations (and I never did in the past: this was just the first and last exception).

Thank you again and beste wensen!