Short Stay Housing Report. Stop the Exploitation - 2011 by ROOD

SHORT STAY HOUSING REPORT: STOP THE EXPLOITATION

INTRODUCTION In early 2010, ROOD The Hague awarded housing agency DUWO the title of ‘Slumlord of the year’. TU Delft and the ‘Haagsche Hogeschool’ guarantee the international students rooms through DUWO. Once in the Netherlands, students learn this to be on scandalous conditions. ROOD The Hague gave DUWO plenty of time to fix these practices. When it became clear that these practices were not going to stop, an extensive research was started among international students in The Hague and Delft. The shocking conclusions of this study are presented in this report. International students pay extravagant amounts of rent compared to their Dutch counterparts. Service costs go in to the hundreds of euros and are not specified. The quality of the service and the maintenance is poor, and in stark contrast to the high costs for the students. The so called ‘short stay housing’ contracts cannot be prematurely terminated, which means that students are stuck for the one year length of the contract. Through the ‘Slumlord of the Year’ election, ROOD, the youth organization of the the SP, has received similar complaints over the years from international students from other cities. The complaints are principally the same as in The Hague and Delft. The students are pleased with the room guarantee, but once in the Netherlands they are stuck with a unfair contract. It is therefore very likely that the complaints from The Hague and Delft do not stand alone and that international students are widely exploited in Netherlands. With this report we want to put this issue on the political agenda. Where the internationalization of education is a central point of many political parties, they seem to forget that this internationalization comes with certain obligations. Politicians must take responsibility and ensure equal rights for international students. It is unacceptable that international students are exploited on their fundamental right to a roof above their head.

Leon Botter, Chairman ROOD

SHORT STAY HOUSING REPORT: STOP THE EXPLOITATION

SHORT STAY HOUSING TU Delft and the Haagse Hogeschool find the recruiting of international students to be very important. For these international students itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very difficult to find a room due to the lack of student housing in The Netherlands. Therefore, these educational institutions guarantee housing when they recruit students to come to The Netherlands. DUWO makes it possible to deliver on this guarantee. International students are obligated to sign a short stay contract. This is a contract for a fixed period: half year or a year. This contract cannot be prematurely terminated and the tenant must pay for the full period. It is good and necessary to guarantee housing for international students. It is understandable that there are some conditions attached. But the way that DUWO and the educational institutions fill in these conditions is found to be questionable by the survey among over 200 international students.

SHORT STAY HOUSING REPORT: STOP THE EXPLOITATION

RESULTS SURVEY To investigate the short stay housing of housing agency DUWO, 267 international students were surveyed in The Hague and Delft. They answered questions about the length of their contracts, the rent, facilities and services provided by DUWO. Renting Contract All renting contracts of the students in this study were for a limited period. 70% had a contract for one year and 30% for a period of six months. Many students indicated that they preferred a more flexible contract time. The main reason given for this was that international students did not want to pay rent when they had already left their room and were already back home. The contract period is from September to August of the following year, meaning that a student has to pay for a few months extra if he/she graduates in June. 46% of the respondents reported to pay 300 to 400 euros per month for rent and 37% reported 400 to 500 euros per month. These amounts were paid for an average room of 15 square meters. Over 65% of the students said the rent was too high. In The Hague there are different complexes where international and Dutch students live together in the same gallery. The Dutch students live there by themselves and the international students live there in pairs. They pay the same amount of rent. This means that the international student pays twice as much per square meter. In The Hague many international students pay their rent per semester. This means that upon arrival they have to pay about 3000 euros. If a student leaves prematurely for whatever reason he/she loses the entirety amount. Rent The rent includes service costs. Of all surveyed tenants only 38% knew the amount of service costs they paid. This amount was in most cases approximately equal to the basic rent. For example an international student in Delft with a room of 15 square meters pays 200 euros of basic rent and 190 euros of service costs. A specification of these costs shows that students pay for furniture, wall coverings, kitchen utensils, cutlery, gas, water, electricity, internet, cable and glass insurance. A breakdown of these service costs is not given in the contract and therefore itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not strange that most tenants donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how much they pay. After obtaining the specifications, 53% of surveyed students said that the service costs are too high. Of the students surveyed, 62% said that tenants should have more influence on where they will live and therefore how much rent they will pay. Many tenants feel uncomfortable with the fact that they cannot choose their own room, and are forced to take a room they normally might not have chosen, because they are denied the choice of a smaller and therefore cheaper room.

SHORT STAY HOUSING REPORT: STOP THE EXPLOITATION

Extra Costs Besides the basic rent and service costs the DUWO charges many extra fees. For example 80% of the respondents said they have to pay for the use of washing machines and dryers. Every wash cycle cost 2 euros and 50 cents and the use of the dryer costs 2 euros. The DUWO has announced that they will increase these amounts next September. Tenants are charged 150 euros administration costs when they sign their contract and are charged an extra 50 euros when they extend this contract. Moving to another DUWO room costs the tenant an extra fee of 100 euros. When the tenant closes itself out, they can expect a bill of 75 euros for the opening of their door. This fee will be raised to 100 euros in September. When the contract is signed one month of rent is asked as deposit. At the end of the stay of a tenant DUWO decides if they give back the full amount or only a part. In the study several tenants said that they had lost (part of) their deposit, because a pot was damaged, or that their old and cheap microwave oven had stopped working, or because a tenant had left a pillow behind (which cost the tenant 30 euros). Facilities Half of the students in the survey said they missed some kitchen facilities; a popular example is an oven. Bringing your own oven is prohibited by the conditions of the contract. So, students will have to manage with a small gas stove. Out of 267 respondents, 56% indicated that they had no smoke detector in their room, while this is made compulsory by law. Nearly 20% of tenants indicated that DUWO did not respect their privacy. Caretakers in service of DUWO are allowed to enter the rooms at any time. This results in awkward situations: for example, a certain tenant was still in the shower when the caretaker entered. In the contracts it is stated that all DUWO personnel is allowed to enter the room of the tenants at all times.

CONCLUSIONS Our survey among 267 DUWO tenants from Delft and The Hague shows that international students are not treated equally to Dutch students by this housing agency. On the one hand Dutch students have a lot of freedom to choose their home, to pick their own furniture, and to manage their own laundry, while on the other hand international students have no choice in these matters. They canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t refuse the services offered by the DUWO, with their associated costs, if they want a room. Many students have problems with the length of their contract. Dutch students can terminate their housing contract at any time as long as they keep to the predetermined period of notice. This does not apply to foreign students. The international students are forced to pay the cost of vacant DUWO rooms. DUWO should be more flexible and there should be a possibility to terminate contracts at the end of the academic year (June). There is not a big difference between the basic rent that Dutch students and international students pay, but the difference in service costs is enormous. The service costs should be clearly specified, and they should be included in the contracts of new tenants. In addition, tenants should have a choice in the services they purchase from DUWO. Since the vast majority of international students do not have a television in their room, it seems only fitting to not charge them for cable. Also, the costs of services provided needs to be reasonable; leasing cutlery for 10 euros per month is unacceptable. The extra fees, the DUWO charges for extending contracts, opening doors, moving and administration costs, are excessive and not in relation to fees charged to Dutch students. While Dutch students are able to move free of charge to a new DUWO-room, international students are asked a fee of 100 euros. The fees for international students need to be reduced and should be similar to the fees for Dutch students. Also, it seems that the DUWO does not think Dutch rental law applies to international students. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a right to privacy and employees of the housing agency can enter their room at any time. Moreover not in all apartments all the necessary fire safety measures have been taken. In short, after having done extensive research among foreign DUWO tenants in The Hague and Delft it has become clear that the DUWO has separate policies for Dutch and international students. International students have to pay more, get less service and have to pay extra for everything. DUWO must stop applying double standards and treat all students equally. If that happens, Short Stay Housing contracts will no longer have a chokehold on international students.

SHORT STAY HOUSING REPORT: STOP THE EXPLOITATION

DEMANDS ROOD demands from housing agency DUWO: • Equal treatment of all students, regardless of country of origin • Specification of the service costs in the contract • The liberty for international students to choose which services they purchase from the DUWO • The right to privacy for tenants; the housing agency is not allowed to enter rooms without notice • All houses should comply to fire safety requirements • No excessive amounts should charged for administration, signing new contracts, opening doors and extending contracts ROOD demands from the minister of National affairs: • An investigation into the possible exploitation of international students by Dutch housing agencies • A dialogue with the educational institutions on their role in the drafting of housing contracts for international students