Liability of rental agent: Your rights

Questioner

Ir/Madam, For a few months now I have been renting out my home in Rotterdam, through a letting agent. It was rented to a company, who would accommodate employees there. After a few months, the police raided the house and discovered a cannabis farm in the crawl space. I picked up the keys to the new locks from the police. There are still all kinds of personal belongings of the residents in the house. They are now trying to make an appointment to pick up the belongings. All remains of the nursery still need to be removed. New locks also need to be installed, as well as a new electricity meter. I sent all the requested documents to the municipality and reported the vandalism to the police. The letting agent says he checked (this is also stated in the rental agreement). I also went along once for an inspection, but then we could not go in because the resident was not at home. My question: Can I hold the letting agent liable for the costs I will make (cleaning up, new locks etc.)? And how does that work? Thank you!

Lawyer

Do you have a contract with the letting agent? I would like to read that first, before I answer this question. If you have only agreed with the letting agent that he will take care of the letting, and not that he also has to supervise, then the question is whether you can recover the damage from the letting agent. The letting agent may be expected to make good agreements with the tenant and to check whether the tenant has sufficient income to pay the rent, but if you have not agreed otherwise, the agent is not necessarily obliged to carry out regular inspections.

Lawyer

Thank you for your question. Case law has determined that the letting agent has a duty of care. The letting agent must act as may be expected of a reasonably competent and reasonably acting professional colleague in comparable circumstances. The question here is whether the agent sufficiently investigated which party he was dealing with and more specifically whether he was dealing with a reliable tenant. Was the company able to pay the rent and what work does the company perform for which it must accommodate employees. If it appears that with some investigation it could have been discovered that the tenant was not acting in good faith, the letting agent can be accused of having breached his duty of care. Furthermore, it is important what is stated about this in the contract and any general terms and conditions.

Questioner

Thanks for the quick responses! The lease agreement states that the agent will check regularly (once a month). It also states that the letting agent will act as 'manager'. How exactly does holding someone liable work? Thank you!

Lawyer

You can file a claim by sending a (registered) letter or email in which you state what happened and that you believe the broker is liable for the damage. It would be great if you have evidence that the broker has made mistakes. When dismantling a cannabis nursery, an investigation is often carried out into the age of the plants and indications of the number of times they have been harvested. This can be used to deduce how long the nursery has been present. You must demonstrate: - that the nursery has been in operation for more than a month; - or that there were indications that a nursery was being run and the broker could have noticed this. I do wonder how accessible the crawl space is. It is conceivable that a judge would require the real estate agent to carry out checks, but that does not mean that the real estate agent is obliged to conduct a house search every month.

Lawyer

You must inform the sales agent in writing by registered letter that he has failed to fulfill his obligations under the brokerage agreement, which has allowed the cannabis farm to continue, or that he has violated his duty of care by not sufficiently investigating the tenant. You then hold the rental agent liable for the damage you have suffered with the summons to pay the relevant amount of damages to you within two weeks.