Housing minister: temporary rents actually help students

Like other tenants, students renting rooms were supposed to be entitled to a permanent rental contract. Last year, the Dutch House of Representatives passed an amendment to the law on rental housing to include rental accommodation with shared facilities – the type of accommodation most students tend to live in.

National student organisation LSVb was positive about the change, as was the Union of Tenants. However, the House instructed the minister to make several exceptions before July 1. One such exception would be made for international students, who should be able to sign a temporary rental contract with a landlord.

Exception
A few weeks ago, the news broke that the minister had expanded the exception for all students, not just those from abroad. European legislation prevents him from distinguishing between Dutch students and international students from the European Economic Area. European citizens have the right to free movement.

In response to questions posed by the Higher Education Press Agency (HOP), the minister offered a new line of reasoning, saying that an exception for international students would work to the disadvantage of Dutch students. After all, what is likely to happen when temporary housing becomes available? Who will get to live there? If temporary contracts can only be issued to international students, De Jonge argues, landlords will choose an international student over a Dutch counterpart. 

Abuse
In some cases, landlords use temporary contracts to raise the rent in between. De Jonge aims to break that pattern of abuse by introducing another bill titled the Affordable Rent Act. He is convinced it will “better protect students from high rent”. The bill will put an end to interim increases by imposing a maximum rental price.

According to the minister, there will soon be no benefit to landlords in offering temporary contracts. A temporary contract will only serve to rent out a room that is available temporarily. As an example, De Jonge asks people to imagine a room that becomes vacant when its occupant decides to study abroad for a while. A temporary contract would allow another student to move in until the usual occupant comes back. “I don’t expect temporary contracts to be used for renting out rooms in general.” 

Nonsense
The Union of Tenants dismisses the minister’s arguments as nonsense. It's always been possible for tenants to sublet their rooms, says Marcel Trip, a member of the Union, for whom De Jonge’s upcoming bill is not going to stop interim rent increases either. Most of all, he is concerned about the risk of landlords threatening not to renew a temporary lease, which would make tenants less willing to go to the rent assessment committee if faced with excessive service charges or overdue maintenance. “That is exactly what landlords who bend the rules will do”, Trip says. “They are being handed a huge gift, while students are only given rights on paper.”

In the House of Representatives, parties SP and D66 were caught off guard by the minister’s course of action. Yet the shift in his approach did not come out of the blue. When the bill was debated in the House, De Jonge expressed concerns about temporarily renting vacant houses to students, wondering whether that would still be possible in the future.

CDA knew the score
In the Senate, CDA came to the minister’s rescue. The party only helped the bill gain a majority when the minister shelved the distinction between domestic and international students shortly before senators were due to vote. He hinted that all students could be put in the same category.

Four days later, CDA reaped the rewards. While nothing was officially settled, the party said it had backed the bill due to an exception for “specific groups, such as students”, as CDA Senator Theo Rietkerk stated when explaining his vote. And sure enough, that exception was introduced three months later. 

SP and D66 are disappointed by this turn of events, fearing that students will continue to “hop from temporary contract to temporary contract”. Yet, a lack of support in the House means they see no way to block the minister’s initiative. Not enough parties backed their requests for a debate and an earlier request for an urgent procedure. 

This was also true of GroenLinks-PvdA, which together with ChristenUnie tabled the private member’s bill on permanent rental contracts and also voted for including student rooms in the law. In a brief response, PvdA member Habtamu de Hoop says, “PvdA, together with ChristenUnie, has ensured that permanent tenancies become the norm. We believe tenants should be protected as effectively as possible, and that includes students.”