Paying for the Landlord's Paperwork
At the beginning or end of a tenancy, landlords or their agents often try to charge tenants a fee for conducting the property inspection and preparing the associated reports. This can be called an 'inspection fee' (inspectiekosten), 'inventory check fee', or bundled into a vaguer 'administration fee' (administratiekosten). This charge is meant to cover the agent's time for walking through the property with the tenant, documenting its condition, taking meter readings, and drawing up the check-in/check-out report (opleveringsrapport). While presented as a standard procedural fee, charging the tenant for this service is, in almost all circumstances, illegal in the Netherlands. It's a classic example of landlords offloading their own operational costs onto tenants, who are often in a poor negotiating position and may be unaware of their rights.
The Legality: An 'Unreasonable Fee'
The legal reasoning behind why these fees are prohibited is straightforward. The check-in and check-out inspection is a crucial process that is primarily in the landlord's interest. The detailed report and inventory list serve as the landlord's main evidence to hold the tenant liable for any damages beyond normal wear and tear at the end of the lease. Without this documentation, the landlord has a very weak case for withholding any part of the security deposit. Because the activity serves the landlord's business interest, the associated cost is considered a part of their normal cost of doing business. Charging the tenant for it is therefore considered an 'unreasonable fee' (onredelijk beding) under Dutch law. This principle is closely related to the well-established ban on charging tenants agency fees (bemiddelingskosten) when an agent is clearly working on behalf of the landlord. The name given to the fee is irrelevant; if the charge is for services that mainly benefit the landlord, it's not the tenant's responsibility to pay for it.
Disguised Fees and How to Spot Them
As awareness of the law has grown, some landlords and agencies have become more creative in how they name these charges to make them sound legitimate. Tenants should be highly skeptical of any non-rent, non-deposit fee requested at the start of a lease. Common disguises for illegal inspection fees include:
Contractkosten(Contract costs)Administratiekosten(Administration costs)Sleutelgeld(Key money - a blatantly illegal fee for the keys themselves)- Tenant onboarding/registration fee
Unless the landlord can demonstrate that a specific fee pays for something that is solely and directly for the tenant's benefit and is an optional service the tenant agreed to, it is likely an illegal charge. The simple act of preparing a standard rental contract or conducting the mandatory property inspection does not qualify.
Tenant Recourse and Practical Advice
A tenant's options depend on their situation. If you are a prospective tenant and are asked to pay such a fee, you should refuse and state that it is not legally permitted. This can be a test of the landlord's character. If you have already paid such a fee upon signing the contract, you have the right to reclaim it. The process is to first send a formal letter (ingebrekestelling) to the landlord or agency, demanding a full refund of the unlawfully charged fee within a reasonable timeframe (e.g., 14 days). If they refuse, you can initiate legal proceedings, typically at the kantonrechter (sub-district court), which handles rental disputes. The law is very clear on this, and cases to reclaim these costs have a high success rate. Many tenants successfully reclaim these fees even years after they were paid.
