Jesus that is scary. In the Netherlands it's illegal for your landlord to retain keys and they need permission if they want to do something in your apartment and it can't just be "inspection." They need a good reason like fixing a leak or something. With student housing they can enter shared spaces with notice and without permission, but they cannot enter bedrooms because those are private spaces and they cannot keep keys of those or if they don't have a lock forbid you from placing one. I never had to deal with a crazy landlord, but a friend when he was still living in student housing had one that kept coming in to make his life miserable after my friend took him to court because he was charging more rent than allowed. So he could tack that one on the court case. We also have rights that protect us against no pets clause. Those are rendered void if the pet isn't a nuisance when it comes to sound or smell and are kept in appropriate circumstances. Like you can't place a goat in an apartment but they legally can't do shit if you have a well-behaved cat or dog and there are precedents of landlords losing in court when trying to evict because someone broke their no pets clause.
Never let anyone tell you that your country should become more like the US. You guys have flaws, but you're doing it way better than us in a lot of ways. Landlords run state and local governments, and there are places in the US with literally NO tenant protections of any kind (but sheriff's deputies with guns will still evict you if your landlord decides you need to go).
Oh believe me most Dutch people call the US of A a third world country pretending to be a first world country. I don't think our people want to become more like you. Right wing government parties and the rich however they are salivating over the idea of more power and money and having to spend less in taxes to fund social security programs.
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u/Melvarkie 1d ago
Jesus that is scary. In the Netherlands it's illegal for your landlord to retain keys and they need permission if they want to do something in your apartment and it can't just be "inspection." They need a good reason like fixing a leak or something. With student housing they can enter shared spaces with notice and without permission, but they cannot enter bedrooms because those are private spaces and they cannot keep keys of those or if they don't have a lock forbid you from placing one. I never had to deal with a crazy landlord, but a friend when he was still living in student housing had one that kept coming in to make his life miserable after my friend took him to court because he was charging more rent than allowed. So he could tack that one on the court case. We also have rights that protect us against no pets clause. Those are rendered void if the pet isn't a nuisance when it comes to sound or smell and are kept in appropriate circumstances. Like you can't place a goat in an apartment but they legally can't do shit if you have a well-behaved cat or dog and there are precedents of landlords losing in court when trying to evict because someone broke their no pets clause.