• 342345@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    95€ temporarily until the defects are fixed. Then the 20qm room is worth a rent of 477€.

    The Huurcommissie scored the appointment on a point scale, and determined the reasonable rental price should have been 476.85 euros per month. The tribunal then noted that the tenant was unable to lock their own bedroom. Additionally, the wood-framed kitchen skylight had a 10 millimeter crack in it, causing drafts, and the toilet tank in a shared bathroom was leaking.

    The tribunal further lowered the rent to 95.37 euros until the damage is fixed, saying it could find no evidence the landlord actually tried to fix the problems. This can gradually increase as repairs are carried out to the maximum of just under 477 euros. The reduction was also backdated to September 1 from the ruling, which was filed at the end of December and published more recently. As a result, the landlord must repay the overpaid rent in the intervening months.

    • Bender_on_Fire@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not trying to defend the decision, but as far as I know, the reasoning is that if you charge significantly less than you could, it might be because you have other undisclosed agreements with the tenants, like them doing some extra chores for you, repairing the flat or something else. This way, you could avoid a lot of taxes. The sentence also doesn’t seem to be a fine in the narrow sense, but rather a demand of additional taxes. If I’m not mistaken, it’s perfectly legal to charge very little for a flat, but you still have to pay taxes as if you would have rented it out for a regular price.

      • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s weird to me that the taxes are based on how much your charge your tenants? Not on land value, or land use

        • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          That should be separate & regardless of rent (or no rent), but rent is income and should be treated as such.

          If rent was taxed at 95% we would see much less inflation pressures & more homeowners.

          • Don_alForno@feddit.de
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            10 months ago

            We would see construction grinding to a halt and owners not bothering to rent out their flats anymore because it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

            • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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              10 months ago

              Ofc construction would continue just as it did for thousands of years - and because of the exact same reasons rents can get that high: people just need to live somewhere. Homes have intrinsic value and are necessary regardless of monetary value.

              It’s not like the housing market didn’t exist before the value increase in the western world (so in the last 70 years).

              There would however be less investments into homes, less financial incentive to build extra homes you don’t intend to use personally. So yes, fewer places to rent, more homeowners. And secondary market would function just as good, people move around all the time, needs change over ones life, etc - buying and selling would be easier. Prices would still vary a lot, but would reflect the majority (more democratic prices?).

              • Don_alForno@feddit.de
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                10 months ago

                people just need to live somewhere.

                For people to build or buy their own homes they need to be able to afford them. They can’t, which is why they rent. If landlords don’t offer flats for rent anymore, people don’t magically have more money to buy or build.

                Corporation and private investors build rental properties because they aim to profit from them, and if that isn’t the case anymore, their construction activity slows down and then stops. As can currently be seen e.g. in Germany.

                The only way to effectively counter rising rents in cities is public, non profit construction and decentralization efforts (so people don’t all flock to the few places that are hip to live in).

                • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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                  10 months ago

                  Well, no, flat prices wound crash in that case & again be affordable. It’s not like project devs wouldn’t build stuff & sell flats, it’s just that the financing wouldn’t come from financial industry directly (but via retail mortgages). Also less inflationary pressure on building materials and labor.

                  And … saying that ppl can’t afford to buy so they rent is bs if the rent is higher that the mortgage would have been.

                  That’s why socialist countries have less homeless ppl (and more homeowners) and why in a free market you would want to have homeless people (otherwise you are not maximizing your yield/rent).

              • Turun@feddit.de
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                10 months ago

                Homes […] are necessary regardless of monetary value.

                You just showed why prices would go up if rent were taxed that way (and why the prices are so high at the moment). No one thinks a small flat is worth 1500€/month (or what have you), but they need a place to live near their job. So they’ll pay whatever it costs. Same with deregulated health care, like in the US.

                Also, for what it’s worth. Even without the construction costs and without any profit margin landlords must pay for home repairs. I don’t think 5% would even cover that

      • neo@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        The argument is: if your rent is that cheap, you probably have a side deal going on (like extra pay or work for housing) to avoid taxes and/or social security contributions.

        I’m not saying the present system is great, I’m just explaining it and unfortunately some people indeed try “save” taxes that way.

        • Gieselbrecht@feddit.de
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          10 months ago

          I’m not sure this is exactly the argument, I understood it as: “You rent out so cheap you don’t want to make a profit, and if you don’t want to make a profit you can’t make deductions in relation to your properties.” Which I don’t find great either.