Rental law: Costs for tenant and landlord

Questioner

Good afternoon, I have been renting out an apartment for years and charged my tenants for the costs of, among other things, municipal taxes. These concerned the sewerage tax owner/user and OZB owner/user home. My current tenant now immediately receives a tax assessment from the municipality and now pays the user assessments himself. However, I still charge him for the sewerage tax assessments for the owner and the property tax assessments for the owner of the home. After all, this concerns part of my costs that I have to make so that this is a functioning property and can be rented out. Invoking the change in the tax regime, my tenant no longer wants to reimburse these costs. These costs were paid by my tenants, and also by the current ones, when I received another tax bill from the municipality for a year. So I never charged them in the service costs, but always separately or in the final settlement. Thanks in advance for your response. Yours sincerely,

Lawyer

You may never pass on owner taxes and levies to the tenant of your home. You are expected to be able to meet your expenses from the basic rent. The tenant can reclaim the undue payment from you retroactively - up to 5 years back. Unfortunately, it is not different. From what I read, you probably do not have a good rental contract either. If you want, I can help you with that; rental law is my specialty. Feel free to contact me without obligation.

Questioner

Thank you for your quick and clear response! In the past, rental contracts were drawn up by a former national organization that mediated in rental properties. It has recently stopped working on that basis and is also no longer available ... I am considering terminating the rental, but otherwise it would definitely be worth it.

Lawyer

Don't mention it. Unfortunately, many rental property brokers work with very poor rental contracts. Even large organizations! I see the consequences of this every day in my practice. If necessary, you know where to find me.