Parliamentary Questions about housing scams in Delft

Our article told the story of student Mike. This is not his real name as, being the victim of fraud, Mike is afraid of the criminal that cheated him out of EUR 1,000.

Mike had responded to an ad for a room on the Mijnbouwstraat on Kamernet and went for a viewing. After paying a deposit of EUR 1,000, he got the keys. When he then went to the room again, it appeared that someone else was already living at that address. Mike tried to contact the landlord, but he did not respond. When Mike later saw the hefty guy walking around in Delft, he did not dare approach him. Our article also included warnings to students by the police and TU Delft about this scam and other forms of fraudulent room rental.

Blacklists
In response to this news, Socialist Party (SP) Members of Parliament Sandra Beckerman and Frank Futselaar want answers from the Ministers of Housing and Education as to how many TU Delft students and students across the country have been the victims of fraud. They also want to know how many of these students are international students. The SP assumes that international students are more vulnerable because they do not speak Dutch and do not know the system. The investigation for a previous article in Delta about housing scammers in Delft showed that neither TU Delft nor the police had figures.

Further, the SP wants answers from the Ministers as to how TU Delft students are warned about scammers and whether the Ministers will ensure that all institutes of higher education will do the same. TU Delft has a special website carrying warnings to students.

The SP accuses websites such as Kamernet, Roomster and Facebook of playing a role in this type of room rental fraud. The party wants to know if these internet platforms are monitored and whether there are or will be blacklists of landlords. Other ways to fight fraudulent rental, says the SP, are to support rental teams, issue an independent certificate and make rental permits mandatory.

The Ministers have three weeks in which to answer the SP’s Parliamentary Questions.