Tenant Service Costs: Need Legal Advice?

Questioner

I rent an apartment (private residence) and recently received a statement for the service charges for the periods 2009 and 2010. I pay a separate advance for these service charges. I found that according to Article 7:259 section 2 BW the landlord is obliged to provide the statement of service charges within 6 months after the end of the year (so before 1-7-2010 and 1-7-2011 respectively). I called the property manager about this, who indicated that the service costs can still be claimed for up to 5 years on the basis of Article 3:208 of the Dutch Civil Code, and that there have been a number of cases about this and that, according to case law, they can therefore still recover the costs from me. I can't find any case law on additional assessments of service costs to private individuals, only to companies. In Article 3:208 BW 'service costs' are not mentioned and I think this is about the limitation period of the settlement, not about whether the settlement is valid or not. Furthermore, the landlord has included a calculation of the costs. Do I have to pay the service costs and is the landlord right or does Article 7:259 section 2 BW simply apply and is the settlement illegal?

Lawyer

The law does not impose a penalty for not providing the statement as you have indicated. You can submit the statement to the rent assessment committee from the moment the statement is provided (or the final statement is not provided). This says nothing about the enforceability of the landlord's claim, see Ktr. Rotterdam 14 October 1994. Based on article 7:259 paragraph 2 BW, I would like to assume that the landlord's claim is enforceable from six months after the end of the calendar year. The limitation period is five years based on article 3:307 BW or 3:308 BW. Your landlord's claim has therefore not yet expired and you still have the opportunity to submit the statement to the rent assessment committee. Good luck!