City wants to curtail use of short-stay contracts
The proposal by the executive board of the municipality (B&W) to the city council will be discussed on Wednesday.
Over the past few years, the number of properties using short-stay contracts has rapidly increased, as the housing shortage led to rooms and studios being built in locations that weren’t zoned for residential use. Short-stay contracts were a solution because they didn’t require a change to the zoning plan.
However, students with a short-stay contract don’t enjoy rent protection. This means that they can’t go to the rental committee when something is amiss in their residence. They also end up paying more rent. The city wants to put an end to this.
Exempt
B&W would like Stichting Studenten Huisvesting (SSH) to be exempt from the four-month rule.
SSH has an agreement with the UG and Hanze University of Applied Sciences to have rooms available for international students at the start of the academic year. When students leave in the few months before September, SSH does not attempt to find new tenants. The RUG and Hanze cover the costs of the vacancies.
By using contracts that can’t be cancelled, the outflow of residents is limited. Students can only move out before their contract is up if they’re leaving the university or for personal reasons. If this changes, the UG and Hanze will probably have to pay more to cover the vacancies.
Current contracts
On Tuesday, the city responded by saying that the new rules would not apply to existing properties like The Student Hotel and De Suiker. ‘We can’t change the rules halfway through the game. That wouldn’t be fair.’
The city will only be testing new initiatives. ‘That doesn’t mean the use of existing properties for new guests.’ They’d like to keep the option open of exempting new properties of the new rules.
This article has been updated with a response from the city concerning how the new rules will impact existing contracts. Earlier, it said that the city was unable to respond and didn’t know what impact the rules would have.