Can you tell us about your situation?

My name is Egor, and I came to NL in March 2023 to work here. I had to find an apartment to live in the course of 3 weeks and it was very hard thing to do. I have been to several viewings and I applied for more than 100 apartments but aparantly it was almost impossible to get something in 3 weeks. Then I got a call for a very small apartment in the center of Eindhoven, old house with a bad energy label. I thought it was very overpriced, but it was my only chance so I accepted. I was really feeling not good about this decision, but on the other hand I understand I don't have another option to live in Eindhoven. So I thought if this is what it takes, let me do it. Then the landlord was not truly supportive of me in my requests overall. They never helped me with situations regarding suege and some other stuff. When the time came to extend the contract, they didn't and they told me they will not give me my full deposit back and charge me on top of it for some very stupid things that already existed before I lived there. I thought I was very unlucky for my first 18 months in this country. So the contracted stopped, I had to move out and moved to a way more spacious apartment, and I was contacted by Jan who told he can help me to get back the overpaid amount of money because it was too high. He looked in my contract and understood im eligible for a refund. I was very hopefull and very happy at that moment because I understood that my gut feeling of overpaying was correct and I was very happy some person existed who defended my interest. It was very easy for me, I only send the documents and Jan handled everything. It was very fast within 2 weeks that Jan fixed it. Of course I was extremely happy that justice prevailed. After that I contacted all my expat-friends and asked him if they are in the same situation because I believe this is the right thing to do. Many expats have a lack of knowledge so they don't know their position.

I was very happy because I knew I could use this extra money, and it would help to buy additional furniture for my new house. I know now if I have any questions regarding my housing I can always contact Jan. I felt happy and wish I knew about this before my contracted ended. My fight was fast, because jan knew what he was doing and the landlord knew he was in the wrong place.

How did that make you feel?

I felt terrible, during this period where I had to close my contract and fight about the deposit I felt terrible. Because it was not just the deposit and contract, I also had to find another apartment in 1 month which is really hard to do, I had a felling it was a very short notice.

So I asked my landlord if I could extend for a couple months to look for something else, they refused. Also they charged hundreds of euros on top of what they already charged for cleaning and stuff which I didn't break. So I didn't get my deposit back. I have no friends and realtives here so I felt very alone. I couldn't really contact anyone to ask for help so I really felt I was banged in the Netherlands. But then I understood it was basically people making use of my situation and there was something to do about it. So I felt very bad in August, but after beginning in touch with Jan in September things got really better. In the first couple weeks I thought it might be a scam but there was a chance for things to be justily settled so I took it.

How did it end?

It was very easy. Jan contacted the Landlord and they never contacted me again because Jan took over. I felt relieved that somebody could help me and im not alone in world/city. I think after getting in contact with Jan, after signing the PoA within a week it took two or three weeks for the Landlord to agree a settlement with Jan and after this I got €10k directly wired in my account after two weeks. They knew they were doing something wrong. When I got the money I knew part of the money was for Jan's services and with the rest I bought some furniture for my new apartment at Ikea, and some new books. Also, I bought tickets for the musical festival in Barcelona in June to see some Charlie XCX and Sabrina Carpenter and Chapelle Ron. So I'm very happy that Jan contacted me. After the settlement was reached we met and Jan bought me beer and bitterballen, I was very happy and suprised. I expected it would take several months or a year but it was fixed extremely quickly.