Student wins Landlord Case for 200 Euros

Student wins Landlord Case for 200 Euros

Can a landlord just charge a one-off booking fee of 200 euros, a student from Rotterdam wondered. He filed a lawsuit and won. In 2018, Joris Pijpers, a student at Erasmus University College, came to live in the Rotterdam complex Lucia. Monthly rent: 718 euros for 18 square metres. But beforehand he had to put an extra amount on the table, reports Erasmus Magazine.

That 200 euros was charged for a viewing, an introductory meeting, help applying for rent allowance, advertisements to inform students “about the house in advance”, printing costs and a portal for uploading the contract documents. 

The judge (in Dutch) made short shrift of all this. The landlord was only allowed to send a bill for a key ring and placing a name plate on the mailbox. That cost less than eight euros. The student now gets the rest back with statutory interest, so that the total amount has become higher: 232 euros. It was not about the money, but about the principle, he says to the newspaper AD. (HOP, BB)

^{(Photo: Dalia Madi)}