Excessively high rents and service costs, poor maintenance and unrefunded deposits are just a few examples of the problems that students and knowledge workers in South Limburg come up against when they rent accommodation. To support tenants in disputes, a pilot scheme has been launched with funding from Maastricht University (UM), the Municipality of Maastricht, and the organisation for regional economic cooperation ESZL. The pilot tenant support scheme Huurteam Zuid-Limburg will run for a period of sixteen months. Its new website is now online.

The predecessor of this service, the Housing Helpdesk, is one of the reasons why Maastricht has recently been named Best Student Accommodation City of 2019 by the national student union LSVb. 

In other large cities in the Netherlands, rental teams to support tenants in housing disputes have been operating for some time. What is new is that the pilot Huurteam Zuid-Limburg (‘Rental Team South Limburg’) is not limited to a city or municipality, but is aimed at the entire region.

Until now, the only such service available in the South Limburg region was the Housing Helpdesk, but this only operated in Maastricht. Founded in 2015, the Housing Helpdesk is funded by UM and the Municipality of Maastricht as one of the projects in the ‘Student City’ programme. It supports students in Maastricht if they have problems with their landlord, for example if the rent is higher than the legal maximum, service costs are charged incorrectly, or maintenance work is not carried out. The Housing Helpdesk provides free advice and if necessary takes cases to the Rental Tribunal.

Housing Helpdesk

The Housing Helpdesk has been very successful in helping students in Maastricht. In 2018, the helpdesk received 246 cases and handled 216. The total saving for tenants was more than 166 thousand euros. In view of this success and the importance of making the South Limburg region as a whole an attractive place to live for Dutch and international students and knowledge workers, UM, the municipality and ESZL are funding the regional pilot to expand the activities of the Housing Helpdesk.

From the jury report:

Maastricht stands out for its provision of information. The website https://mymaastricht.nl/ offers a snappy guide to the city for both Dutch and international students. There is an entire section on housing, which also refers students to the Housing Helpdesk in case of problems. This Housing Helpdesk operates more or less like a tenant support team. The information for landlords is also clear. The municipality runs a variety of projects in the field of student housing. The ‘Prettig Wonen’ quality mark for good accommodation is used to check whether a building is fireproof, for example, and via the MATCH project students can to work to improve the local area in exchange for a contribution to the rent.

Nick Bos, vice-president of the Executive Board of Maastricht University (UM), is delighted with the title: ‘UM is very proud that Maastricht has been selected as the best city for student accommodation. It is the outcome we hoped for of intensive cooperation between educational institutions, housing corporations, private landlords and many other stakeholders in the city, under the direction of the municipality.’

The reason behind the launch of the Huurteam Zuid-Limburg pilot is that both Dutch and international students and knowledge workers in the entire South Limburg region run into the same kinds of problems with landlords as they do in Maastricht. The aim of the pilot is to support them in housing disputes. The Housing Helpdesk’s activities are therefore being expanded on two fronts, both in terms of target group and geographical area: Huurteam Zuid-Limburg will assist knowledge workers as well as students, and will operate in the region as a whole rather than just in Maastricht. The Housing Helpdesk for Maastricht will thus become Huurteam Zuid-Limburg. A budget of 120,000 euros is available for the pilot. ESZL is contributing half of this amount, and the rest will be paid by UM and the Municipality of Maastricht.