Rent and paying the rent - Duwo

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Service costs 6 > When does the rent allowance become effective? The allowance year runs from 1 January to 1 January and it is possible to apply for the subsidy at any time of the year. It is even possible to apply for backdated rent allowance up until March of the new year. Should you begin renting a residence during the year and become eligible for rent allowance, the rent allowance will become effective on the first day of the following month. For example, if the rental agreement becomes effective on 17 March, the rent allowance will start in April. > Subletting Subletting your room can have consequences for rent allowance. If the main tenant sublets a section of the residence, the amount of rent used by the Dutch Tax Office to calculate rent allowance will be reduced by 25%. This means that less rent allowance will be awarded, or that it will be cancelled altogether. You are personally responsible for informing the Dutch Tax Office of any applicable changes to your living situation. A condition of subletting is that a written subletting contract needs to have been drafted. It is not permitted for the sublettee to be a spouse, registered partner or immediate family of the main tenant, as these people are always considered to be cooccupants. > House sitting House sitting (i.e. when the main tenant sublets the entire residence to another resident and temporarily lives elsewhere) can also have consequences for the rent allowance. The individual temporarily subletting the residence is viewed by the Dutch Tax Office as a co-occupant. Therefore, you need to inform the Dutch Tax Office of the change to your living situation. The same applies when the house-sitting period is over, when you will need to inform the Dutch Tax Office that your living situation has once again changed. Of course, the temporary resident will need to fulfil the relevant conditions to be eligible for rent allowance. Should a temporary resident fail to satisfy the relevant conditions, the amount of (and eligibility for) rent allowance can be affected. Please contact DUWO for more information regarding the conditions. > Rent moderation Should you be eligible for a certain amount of rent allowance, you can receive it in two ways: paid directly to your bank or giro account, or as rent moderation (clustered payment) via DUWO. The majority of tenants in DUWO accommodation select rent moderation, which means that they pay a lower rental price. If you select this option, you will need to state that the rent allowance should be paid directly to the letter when you fill out the application form. You will also need to enter DUWO’s bank account number and Chamber of Commerce number (27220173). In addition to renting you a residence, DUWO also provides goods and services for an agreed fee: the ‘service costs’. The majority of tenants pay for their gas, water and electricity via DUWO. In addition to this, such services as cleaning communal areas and garden maintenance are also paid for via the service costs. It is also possible to supplement the service costs with a service contract and a contribution to one of the tenants’ organisations. By entering into a service contract, DUWO will take responsibility for any ‘tenants’ maintenance’ required in your residence. Your rental agreement states exactly which items are covered by the service contract. Nearly all new DUWO tenants sign the service contract.
The amount paid for the service costs varies from complex to complex and even between individual residences. Service costs are adjusted at the same time as the rent, which means that you will pay a different amount for the service costs as of 1 July. You will receive a settlement for the previous calendar year at the end of June at the latest, at which time the new service costs will also be announced. The monthly payment is an advance payment based upon an estimate. At the end of June, the amounts paid are balanced with the actual costs. It will then become clear whether you have paid too much or too little in the previous calendar year, and DUWO will either give you a refund or ask for an additional payment accordingly. > Shared accommodation If you rent shared accommodation, the service costs may also include payment for the cable TV service and a contribution to small maintenance in the communal areas. In addition, you will sometimes have to pay for sewerage rights, the waste materials levy and any other local authority taxes. > Independent accommodation If you live in independent accommodation without communal facilities, you will normally pay local authority taxes such as the waste materials levy, sewerage rights and the anti-pollution levy directly to the local authority. The local authority will send you an invoice for any taxes you are required to pay. > Settlement Tenants that are entitled to a refund will receive their money back as soon as possible. If you are required to pay additional costs, DUWO will send you a separate invoice. The amounts for the glass insurance, the service contract and the contents insurance are fixed and are not settled. > Passing on charges Service costs are based on the tenant’s expected usage. But if you receive a considerable sum of money back for the previous year, for example due to a mild winter, it doesn’t automatically mean that your service costs will be lowered. If the following winter is extremely cold, the next settlement would come as a nasty surprise. DUWO takes this into consideration when determining the amounts to be paid in advance. After all, it’s always nicer to receive some money back than to have to pay more. > Division system for shared accommodation In several DUWO complexes, the service costs are shared amongst the number of residents. This concerns complexes in which not every residence is fitted with its own meter. The total energy costs in these complexes are divided using a division system. This division system ascribes a number of service cost units to a residence. You can read more about the specific division of the costs in the ‘Rent conditions’ brochure. At a few complexes, different agreements have been made concerning the division system. 7
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Rent and paying the rent - Duwo

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