Rentbusters

A judgment was published today, in which a subdistrict court judge ruled that a tenant was allowed to pay a lower rental price, because the house gets too hot. The primary reason is the inability of the tenant to shield sunlight from entering the house.

In this case, yhe rental company apparently was located in Germany. From a procedural point of view, it might be interesting to know that a rental agreement that is established between a tenant living in The Netherlands and a company/landlord located in another EU member state is subject to Dutch law and a Dutch court has jurisdictio

The rental company argued that it was not possible to make adjustments to the house without prior consent from the VvE. Although the judge acknowledged that, the judge also mentioned that the tenant is not in a position to change the opinion of the VvE. The rental company as a member of the VvE is.

The tenant took a wise step and approached a technical expert company that assessed the problem and wrote a report. That cost the tenant €2000, but the judge considered reimbursed those costs by sentencing the rental company to pay for the report.

The judge decided that the rental price should be reduced with 10% for as long as the rental company does not resolve the defect.

https://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2023:3403