Legal action after overcharging for service charges?

Questioner

I live in one of the Caland Dock towers in The Hague. The property is managed by F.. Recently, I (and other residents) received a statement in December 2023 for the service costs for the year 2022. These costs are extremely high. Despite repeated attempts, I have not yet received a response after I repeatedly tried to contact F. to obtain clarification and explanation about the costs incurred and the distribution. It is striking that I have already received an email from P. Debiteuren claiming that I have payment arrears, although the payment term has not even expired. In the meantime, this payment arrears is “on hold” after I shared my attempts to contact F. with P. In the meantime, I have also received email contact from F. requesting payment of the service costs in advance. I would like to state that I only want to pay once it is clear where this amount comes from, as this is completely unclear at the moment. Unfortunately, communication with F. is very poor. Due to the issues with F. regarding the settlement of the service costs of 2022, I am contacting you. I hope you can provide me with advice regarding my specific situation and recommend possible legal steps.

Lawyer

First of all, it is wise that you did not pay the statement of the service costs immediately, but first tried to get an explanation of how these costs are structured. F. is obliged to give you a specification and explanation. According to the law (article 7:259 of the Civil Code), a landlord must provide a specified statement of service costs within six months after the end of a calendar year. This statement must state which costs have been incurred and how they have been divided among the residents. It is useful to put your questions and objections in writing for F. This way, you will always have proof of your attempts to find a solution. You can also give F. a reasonable period in this letter to respond to your questions. If F. does not respond within this period, or if no satisfactory solution is found, you have a few options: 1. Engage the Rent Assessment Committee. The Rent Assessment Committee is an impartial organisation that tries to resolve conflicts between tenants and landlords. You can ask the Rent Assessment Committee to review the service charges. Please note that there are costs involved. 2. Contact the Legal Desk or a lawyer. They can advise you on further legal steps, such as a procedure at the subdistrict court. For later payments, you can consider paying with reservation. This means that you pay, but at the same time indicate that you do not agree with the amount of the invoice. You can put the amount that you think is too much in a separate bank account, so that you can easily pay it back if you are ultimately proven wrong. Please note: the above is general advice. For detailed and more specific advice, it is advisable to contact a legal advisor or lawyer directly, who is more specialized in tenancy law. It is important to keep all documents regarding your tenancy agreement and the service charges and to bring them with you to your consultation.---------------- Stichting Rechtswinkel.nl is a national organization with students and volunteers. The above advice is based on limited information and may be incomplete or even incorrect for your situation. Always consult a lawyer or attorney for your further steps. Read disclaimer: https://rechtswinkel.nl/disclaimer I would like to invite you to rate the above answer so that we can learn from your response.