Can you tell us about your situation?

I lived in Leiden, in a 42 m² apartment on the top floor of a canal house. Below me, on the ground floor, lived the landlord. It all started when I was told that she wanted to settle the service costs because the gas price had risen. I wondered if that was possible, since I shared a boiler with my neighbor. That gave me a lot of stress, also because my landlord lived directly below me. She had already requested conversations in the hallway several times. I was no longer comfortable in my own home, she seemed very intimidating and also had a key to my home. In addition, she also suddenly wanted extra money from me for the energy bill, but I had never received a refund before during the periods when I paid too many service costs.

And that's when you called in Jan?

Yes, my landlord was smoking downstairs quite often and I had a bad feeling all the time that I didn't want to run into her. Finally, I called in Jan. That was a huge relief for me, because I didn't know how to fix this myself.

After an introductory meeting, he reassured me and explained to me that it was going to be fine. He would arrange it for me and assured me that I was in my right. He also said that every time the landlord contacted me, I had to say I knew nothing and they had to contact Jan because he had taken over all communication. That was really nice because it made me feel like she couldn't nag/threaten me anymore because I didn't have to worry about it anymore. Jan, who arranged all that and that gave me a lot of peace of mind.

How did it end?

I ended up talking to my landlord again (in consultation with Jan) and then she threatened to evict me if I didn't stop bothering. On Jan's advice, I recorded this conversation with my phone. At some point, I received a letter that my lease was terminated on the end date in my contract (within a few months), and Jan wrote a response to this.

Only then did I find out that many more things were not right. Because it started with service costs and threats, and then it turned out that the rent was too high. After Jan picked everything up and even went to court for me, it turned out that my rent would be reduced and my contract was converted to an indefinite period. I received a monthly rent reduction of €200 and in addition I received an additional €4,000 in return.