Rental terms & our way of allocating
Fair and clear for everyone.
PROTOCOL RENTAL ALLOCATION
Protocol for the allocation of rental housing to prospective tenants
This Protocol for the allocation of rental housing to prospective tenants is used within the framework of the Act on Good Landlord and aims to provide all parties involved with insight into how the allocation of a rental housing is established. This Protocol is aimed at preventing (housing) discrimination.
Definitions:
Letting agent:(An employee of) the letting agent who offers a dwelling for rent on the instructions of the client and is legally authorized to do so.
Principal:The (legal) person or (legal) persons entitled to let the residence who has engaged the rental agency to mediate in the letting of a residence in their interest.
Prospective tenant:A natural person/entity who expresses interest in a rental home offered by the rental broker on behalf of the client.
Purpose of mediation:
To obtain basic information from the prospective tenant:
- Name (first and last name).
- Current address and residence
- Phone number
- E-mail address
- Copy of ID proof (BSN number and passport photo may be masked out)
- Family composition: living alone, living together, with or without children
- Total monthly net income
- Income statement from the tax authorities
- Employment contract(s) and/or employer's statement(s)
- Proof of income (salary statement and recent bank statements showing net income)
- Amount of current rent
- A landlord's statement
- The information necessary to determine whether the prospective tenant(s) are eligible for a housing permit (if obtaining one is required in the municipality where the property is located).
No information is required about:
- Ethnic or cultural background
- Religious identity
- Political affiliation
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity and/or expression
- Physical or mental health
Fair and clear for everyone.
Criteria taken into account for allocation
The basic rule is: first come, first served. The initiative to respond to a property on offer lies with prospective tenants. If there are many responses, it can therefore happen that certain prospective tenants are no longer invited for a viewing and are rejected.
An indefinite employment contract with a reputable employer is preferred. This gives client the most financial security. Temporary employment contracts, (recent) self-employment and other forms of income sources such as alimony, an internship allowance, a third-party guarantee, an inheritance, rental income, etc., may well also lead to allocation of a rental property, but that is customized.
Landlords often impose an income requirement for their tenants to qualify for a rental property. An income requirement is a certain amount of fixed gross income that a landlord requires of the potential tenant. This amounts to several times the rent, usually 2.5 to 3 times. A partner's income can often be counted as half. Setting an income requirement gives the landlord more assurance that the rent will be paid neatly (on time) each month.
After any minimum income requirement, the highest (joint) income is preferred. This gives the client the most financial security regarding the fulfillment of the financial obligations from the lease.
Do you have a guarantor? Landlords expect a higher income from a guarantor, with expectations of 4 to 5 times the monthly rent. This is because the guarantor also has his or her own obligations and expenses. For the guarantor to effectively guarantee the tenant, his or her income must be sufficient to cover any additional expenses. Moreover, landlords prefer a guarantor with an income that comes from the Netherlands.
A prospective tenant with a positive and verifiable rental history is preferred. Prospective tenants without a verifiable rental history is customizable, as it requires further information or research
A prospective tenant can be assigned a property only with the proviso that identity can be verified and financial standing is in order. To verify this, the rental agent conducts a thorough screening process. Part of this screening is a manual check for authenticity characteristics of the ID performed by the rental agent. This check can be performed, for example, with the DutchID App offered by the Dutch government. The result of this screening can lead to a rejection (even after an initial allocation).
It is important to have an appropriate occupant composition per dwelling. This is to prevent nuisance and damage, but also to prevent over-occupancy of housing, for example. The occupant composition per dwelling will therefore be taken into account during allocation. Depending on the type of home, certain compositions are preferred. This is customized for each home.
In some cases, the location of the rental property or its characteristics may result in certain prospective tenants being more suitable in principle than others
For each property offered, the client makes the final choice between the prospective tenants. The rental agent has no influence on the final choice.
The rental broker refrains from any form of (participation in) discrimination with respect to the allocation of rental properties to prospective tenants. The rental broker bears no responsibility or liability for the actions of its principals.
In conclusion:
Due to privacy laws, the rental agent is not authorized to provide basic information of prospective tenants to third parties
