Many international students have difficulty finding a room. They are faced with the unwillingness of landlord and Dutch students, temporary contracts and companies who try to make money out of the housing shortage. 'It is ridiculous to pay for a website that gives you no guarantee in finding a place.'

Every year, students are facing difficulties finding a room in Nijmegen. It is no secret that experiences in finding a room are different for International and Dutch students. In many housing groups on Facebook (e.g. Kamer Te Huur In Nijmegen), under the description of the rented rooms, it says ‘only Dutch’ or ‘no internationals’.

Many internationals stay on their friends’ couches, airbnb’s, hotels, without having an official address or permanent stay. SSH& is one of the main accommodation providers for the students. The company ‘currently owns a total of almost 7,000 residential units in 28 residential complexes and nearly 80 city buildings in Arnhem and Nijmegen’, it says on their website. In 2019, there were a total of 22,976 students enrolled at Radboud University, and 5,703 of them were first-year students. These numbers leave some students with the option of looking for other alternatives than SSH&. And other parties benefit from the students’ search.

Membership

Mark, a full-time international bachelor student, had to find a new room in 2018, after his SSH& contract ended. He spent his summer looking for accommodation. After many emails and Facebook messages, ‘I registered to Kamernet and other websites. I spend about 100 Eu on registrations, but I had no luck in finding a place’. Kamernet is a nation-wide room search platform. A person can search for the room of one’s liking for free, but the moment he/she wants to respond to the ad – he/she has to pay for the premium account. A premium account can consist of a period of 15 days (for 21EU) or 1 month (for 34 EU).

‘It is ridiculous to pay for the website that gives you no guarantee in finding a place,’ says Mark. ‘There’s no security, so this investment is absurd.’ He had to extend the membership often, because he had no luck. Mark spent a total of almost 200 Eu, and was invited for the viewing only once.

Former Radboud student Denis from Lithuania confirmed what Mark said. ‘From my experience, none of these websites are helpful,’ he says. ‘Most of the apartments are being handled by housing companies that want to know your financial situation. If you are a student that lives on his own earned money, that’s a problem’.

Real estate company

When a person who is looking for a room via Kamernet decides to respond to an advertisement and asks if the room is still available, it is possible they get a link to visit another website. For example: ‘Thank you for your message via Kamernet! If you would like to make an appointment, we ask you to complete a registration on our website www…..’.The prices for registration vary from 20 to 40 Euros, and again, it only opens a search engine and does not give any assurance to find a room.

For example, company BVwonen asks for 29 euros registration fee, Dominica – 40 euros, Interveste – 15 euros, Holland2Stay – 23.50 euros, etc. These and other companies use Kamernet as a platform to get clients. Denis advises fellow students ‘to narrow down your search and look for apartments that have no real estate agency handling it. You will save plenty of time and money’. According to him, ‘most of the real estate companies will have a requirement for your salary which must be 4x times larger than the cost of the apartment you want to rent. Therefore, it is pretty much impossible’.

Desperate

Mark finally found a house. He contacted the Housing Department of Radboud University to help him find a room. ‘After many emails and beg-calls they found me a place. Since I was desperate, I took it,’ he says. The room was provided by Guesthouse Nijmegen, with whom the university has an agreement.

The company contacted Mark. ‘They said I could get a room if I paid 600 euros deposit, 150 euros for the contract and 480 euros for the first month of the rent.’ He had to make a decision within two days. He asked if he could come for a viewing, but the company answered that viewing is not possible due to intense schedule, but assured him that the room was as the pictures stated and that he should not worry.

Only later Mark found out that the pictures were probably made three years ago. ‘I was calming myself with the idea that it would be fine because the room was offered by the university,’ he says. ‘I transferred them 1500 Eu and paid for the room that I never got a chance to see.’

Bed bugs

So, on the 19th of August 2019, after a visit home, Mark was flying back to the Netherlands with his sister. His parents were driving to Nijmegen by car to help him move in. ‘We entered the room and it was in a terrible condition. Everywhere was dirt, broken furniture, the ceiling was leaking, electricity sources were open, the mattress had bedbugs. I paid for the furnished room.’ So, Mark ended up staying at his friend’s couch that night and his family rented a hotel.

He called the company. ‘I told them that I am not planning to pay an amount of almost 500 euros for conditions that were far from the ones that I was promised.’ They did not respond to his calls or e-mails. ‘Each time I would go there, nobody was willing to talk with me, and would throw the responsibility on somebody else, who was not at the office at that time. They apologized that the room was in such a condition, but they said that they cannot help me. Basically, they got the money and all non-financial matters are not their responsibility anymore’.

Mark decided to cancel the contract, but GuestHouse Nijmegen told him that they will not give him his money back. ‘Only with the help of a friend, who studies law, I found out that the company was breaking at least six regulations from the Dutch civil law,’ he says. After that, the company offered to give his money back, as long as he agrees to not include any law-authorities.

Know your rights

Mark notified the Housing Department of the university. ‘I was very angry and disappointed at the university and the company. It seemed like capitalist thinking of how to get money out of the student and then push the responsibility to somebody else.’

In the end, he found a place. ‘My advice to others is: be careful, know your rights, and don’t trust anybody’s word, especially when it’s an institution’. As well, Mark said that one of the most painful realizations was feeling that he was treated this way because he is an international: ‘I talked with the other students that lived in that house, who told me that the guy before me paid 300 euros for this room, while I was supposed to pay 480. That guy was Dutch by the way’.

Scam

Denis, on the other hand, says that for him, the university was helpful in finding a room that was suitable for him and his partner in the first year. However, he also has a story that includes legal authorities. In the first year, his fellow student invited Denis and his partner to live in the same block of apartments where he lived. It was cheap and convenient for a couple. They informed their landlord about the date of their departure and found tenants that would replace them.

Unfortunately, the fellow student canceled the offer. Denis and his partner had a month to find a new apartment. Luckily, they quickly found a place and signed a contract, right before the building was bought by a new landlord. ‘ After 4 months of renting ‘we received a letter that we had to evict the place in two months,’ he says. ‘They said that the reason behind it was that a new law had passed and that renting is only allowed for 6 months, even though the contract clearly stated a period of one year.’

‘Be careful and don’t trust anybody’s word’

‘They communicated with us in Dutch only,’ says Denis. ‘Even though they were able to speak English. We were told that the law does not allow us to stay and that we will be evicted. When I tried reasoning with them, they stopped answering.’ He reached out to lawyers that were giving free counseling on certain days of the week. ‘They told us that the company is trying to pull off a scam.’

So, with the help of the lawyer, they sent an official letter to the landlord. The letter stated that the company has to answer in 5 working days. They ignored their letter and calls. After a while, a ‘previous landlord’ called Denis to resolve the issue on behalf of the current one. He ignored questions about the official letter they’ve sent to the company and kept repeating that it would be fine. For his security, Denis asked them to respond to the letter, it took them long, but finally, they did. ‘They informed us that they refuse to communicate with us from this point forward. There were times when electricity in our apartment disappeared, so I had to resolve it myself with my limited knowledge,’ he says. ‘The only good thing is that the apartment was nice and in a good location.’

Mark is worried about the many the students on the housing market. According to him, they are doomed to pay for the third parties, be fooled, treated with no respect, experience loss of money, etc. in accordance to find accommodation.