Centre for reporting problems with landlords

Types of problems you can report

Discrimination
Landlords may not discriminate between tenants. A landlord is not allowed to select a tenant on the basis of their religion, political preferences, race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, disability or marital status.

Harassment or threatening behaviour
Landlords and letting agents may not intimidate or harass tenants. In other words, they may not frighten a tenant by threatening to terminate the tenancy agreement or cut off the electricity, for example.

No printed tenancy agreement
There must always be a printed copy of a tenancy agreement. The contract must be signed by both the tenant and the landlord.

No information about the tenant’s rights and obligations
Landlords must inform tenants in writing about:

• The tenant’s rights and obligations, where these are not specified in the tenancy agreement.
• The contact details of a person or organisation that the tenant can turn to with questions relating to the rental property.
• Contact details of the centre for reporting problems with landlords.

Deposit
Landlords may ask you to make an extra advance payment, which will be returned when you leave, as long you don’t cause any damage. As of 1 July 2023, landlords may ask for a maximum deposit of two months’ rent. If the tenancy agreement was signed before 1 July 2023, the maximum deposit is three months’ rent.

Excessive service costs
Service costs must be fair. Landlords and letting agents must send tenants an invoice for the service costs every year.

Extra rules for international temporary workers

• The tenancy agreement may not be linked to an employment contract. These two contracts must be completely separate.
• The rights and obligations must be written in a language that the international temporary worker understands.