Each month you pay an advance on the service costs and each year you receive a service settlement from Vesteda for the previous calendar year.

Vesteda states on the settlement what you have paid in advance and what the final service charges were. This way you can check whether the costs have been calculated correctly and whether there is anything to settle. Sometimes you get money back and sometimes you have to pay extra. Good to know is that you always end up paying for the actual cost, the advance is always settled.

Service costs are costs that are added to the basic rent of a property. The service charges must be clearly separated from the basic rent in the rental contract. Service costs may only be charged if this is agreed beforehand between the tenant and Vesteda and laid down in the rental contract. Service costs include among others the following costs:

Communal area

- Electricity

- Electricity Cleaning

- Housekeeping

- Lighting

- Heating system

The following costs are for the tenants own account

- Electricity

- Heating system

- Water supply

With each new rental contract for a single-family residence, you also pay service charges. These service charges relate to, among other things: the malfunction maintenance of your central heating system, sewer unblocking or for the maintenance of a communal garden.

We try to make the service settlement as clear as possible, but we can imagine that you still have questions about it. On this page you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the service costs settlement.

If the lease expires, for example, by moving, you will receive a service settlement for the part of the year you rented from Vesteda, according to normal procedure, after the calendar year in which the contract is expired.

Everyone who pays a monthly advance for service costs receives an annual service settlement. The annual service charge statement will be sent via e-mail. Only if we do not have your e-mail address will you continue to receive the annual statement by mail . The statement with the specification of your advance payment can also be found on mijn.vesteda.com.

We charge an administration fee for drawing up the service settlement. The minimum administration fee is € 7.50 per settlement per unit.

If your question about service costs is not listed, please ask your question via mijn.vesteda.com or by sending an e-mail to sskhuurdersvragen@vesteda.com.

Where in the account can the digital settlement of the service costs be found?

You can find it at www.mijn.vesteda.com >correspondence>received documents.

You can indeed adjust your monthly payment that you pay in advance for the service charge. Please email us sskhuurdersvragen@vesteda.com, providing your name and address. Tell us how much you wish to pay as a monthly advance for the service charge, and we will adjust this for you.

Our aim is to send out the annual statement before July 1st. However, we are partly dependent on suppliers such as water and energy companies when drawing up the statement. Unfortunately, the planning is not entirely in our own hands.

After all, we can only draw up a final statement once we have received all the necessary information.

No, in June an interim analysis will take place to determine whether the monthly advance for energy costs should be adjusted downwards or upwards. You will of course receive another e-mail or letter from us about this.

It is possible to have the amount of your monthly advance payment for service costs be adjusted. Please send an e-mail to sskhuurdersvragen@vesteda.com, stating your name and address, and the reason why.

You can specify the amount you want to pay as a monthly advance for the service costs. We will check your request first and adjust the service costs. However, we don't want you to have to pay extra at the end of the year. Therefore, we estimate the annual service costs as accurately as possible. Based on this, you will receive a proposal for a monthly advance payment amount. We recommend that you comply to this adjustment as an advance amount.

If you pay your monthly advance amount for service and/or heating costs to us by direct debit, the monthly amount will be adjusted by us. You do not have to take any action for this.

If you pay your advance via a periodic transfer to us, please remember to adjust it yourself on time.

The "general" price cap did not apply well for households with a shared connection, such as block heating or a collective energy contract. This is because a building with block heating or a collective contract is seen as one household under the price cap plans because it has only one connection. The government had developed an allowance so that these households will also receive a contribution to the high energy costs in 2023.

You could not apply for the allowance yourself because that was provided by the contract holder. This was Vesteda or the Owners Association (VvE), depending on the complex in which you live.

The grant could be applied for from 2th of April through the 31st of October. All grant applications are submitted. Residents in apartments with block heating are already informed on how the allowance will be paid out.

Our aim is to send out the annual statement before July 1st. However, we are partly dependent on suppliers such as water and energy companies when drawing up the statement. Unfortunately, the planning is not entirely in our own hands.

After all, we can only draw up a final statement once we have received all the necessary information.

No, in June an interim analysis will take place to determine whether the monthly advance for energy costs should be adjusted downwards or upwards. You will of course receive another e-mail or letter from us about this.

We do not want you to pay too much in advance. But we also do not want you to have to pay extra at the end of the year. Therefore we estimate the costs as well as possible and adjust the advance payment if necessary. This way, you will not be confronted with unpleasant surprises.

If your advance payment is adjusted, we will send you a message.

You can indeed adjust your monthly payment that you pay in advance for the service charge. Please email us sskhuurdersvragen@vesteda.com, providing your name and address. Tell us how much you wish to pay as a monthly advance for the service charge, and we will adjust this for you.

In your contract and the proposal for the increase in monthly service and/or heating costs for 2023, you will find each cost type, which will be charged, listed separately. You will also find this in the service and/or heating cost statement.
A breakdown of your advance payment can also be found on mijn.vesteda.com.

Do you foresee problems paying your rent? If so, please inform us of this as quickly as possible. You can reach us via our client portal ‘Mijn Vesteda’ or by email at collections@vesteda.com. We can then take a look at your options together:

• In the case of temporary payment problems, we can often reach a payment arrangement.
• In case of more structural payment problems, we can help you to find a home that is better suited to your current financial situation.
• If a conversation does not lead to a solution and your payment arrears are more than 30 days, we must report your payment arrears to your municipality from 1 January 2021. The municipality will then invite you for a discussion about debt counseling.

Debt counseling
From 1 January 2021, the "Wijziging van de Wet gemeentelijke schuldhulpverlening" will come into effect. This amendment is intended to prevent a starting debt or rent arrears from growing into a problematic debt. In concrete terms, this amendment means that we - in case of rent arrears of more than 30 days - must transfer your contact details and the amount of the rent arrears to the municipality. The municipality will invite you for an interview. This will temporarily stop our collection procedure. Of course your data will not be transferred just like that. The following steps were taken beforehand:

• personal contact has been sought with you about the options for ending and preventing payment arrears;
• you have been made aware of the possibilities for debt counseling;
• you have received at least one written reminder;
• you have offered to submit your contact details and rent arrears to your municipality and you have not responded against this.

If you object to informing the municipality, the early identification process will stop and the normal collection procedure will continue.

More information (in Dutch)?

Vroegsignalering (NVVK)

Vroegsignalering (Projectbureau)

Vragen en antwoorden wijziging wet Gemeentelijke Schuldhulpverlening (Rijksoverheid)

Vragen en antwoorden wijziging wet Gemeentelijke Schuldhulpverlening (VNG)

The cleaning of the common areas is part of the service costs. If you have any complaints about the condition of the cleaning within your complex, you can report this within your online dashboard Mijn Vesteda. In the case of multiple complaints, we will contact the cleaning company that is responsible for the cleaning and ensure the quality improvement.

In addition to the energy tariffs for gas and electricity, surcharges and levies such as energy tax must be passed on. Unfortunately, the exact rates for these services have not yet been set by the grid operator and the government, and are therefore estimated by us.

Due to high energy prices, the government introduced a specific grant for households with block heating in 2023.

Through this specific grant, households with block heating could also qualify for discounts on their energy bills. Households with block heating were in fact not eligible for the general grant via the energy price cap.

We applied for and received this grant for our complexes with block heating. The allocated grant is settled via the annual service charge settlement. The amount awarded is shown on the service charge settlement statement for 2023.

The "general" price cap did not apply well for households with a shared connection, such as block heating or a collective energy contract. This is because a building with block heating or a collective contract is seen as one household under the price cap plans because it has only one connection. The government had developed an allowance so that these households will also receive a contribution to the high energy costs in 2023.

You could not apply for the allowance yourself because that was provided by the contract holder. This was Vesteda or the Owners Association (VvE), depending on the complex in which you live.

The grant could be applied for from 2th of April through the 31st of October. All grant applications are submitted. Residents in apartments with block heating are already informed on how the allowance will be paid out.

The allocated amount will be offset against the advance amount for heating costs already paid in 2023. This settlement therefore takes place during the annual service and heating cost settlement in 2024.

The service and heating bill for apartment complexes with block heating will be drawn up as a priority, so that these residents do not have to wait any longer for their heating allowance.

The regulations for the temporary allowance for block heating state that the distribution must take place according to the usual distribution of energy costs. For example: if a resident pays 5% of the total energy costs, that resident will also receive 5% of the allocated subsidy amount.

The distribution of the allocated amount is also carried out this way within our complexes with block heating.

This means that the allocated amount may differ per address and therefore not every address will receive the same amount.

The temporary allowance for block heating in 2023 was a one-time, generic scheme. In order not to make the implementation of this scheme too complicated, only a limited number of conditions were set in advance.

It is therefore possible that your energy costs will be almost entirely compensated in 2023.

The tijdelijke tegemoetkoming blokaansluitingen stipulates that the total subsidy allocated per complex must be paid out based on consumption. Residents who have used a lot of energy in 2023 will therefore receive a higher compensation than residents who have hardly used any energy.

You will receive a refund because you were eligible for the temporary allowance for block heating in 2023. This arrangement is a one-time arrangement and therefore only applies to the year 2023.

Your monthly advance for 2024 is based on your actual energy consumption and what you would have had to pay in 2023 without the allowance.

If you think your monthly advance is too high, you can have it reduced by sending an e-mail to sskhuurdersvragen@vesteda.com with your reasoned proposal for a new monthly advance, the effective date and your address and contact information.

Most of the electricity costs for the common areas within the apartment complex go towards the usage of the elevator. To put it into perspective, this is about 80% to sometimes 90% of the total. The elevator not only consumes electricity during the lift movements, but also during the standby mode of the control system.

It is almost impossible to achieve energy savings on the standby mode. The only way to save electricity is to limit elevator movements. This means that residents could take the stairs more often. That is why we want to have a notice applied to all elevators with an appeal to take the stairs more often. Of course, this only applies to tenants for whom this is possible.

Energy saving in common areas is often thought of reducing the number of light points. However, this results in a modest amount of energy savings. In addition, good lighting is important for everyone's safety, for example to prevent slipping and falling, but also to guarantee a sense of security for our tenants.

In addition to the energy tariffs for gas and electricity, surcharges and levies such as energy tax must be passed on. Unfortunately, the exact rates for these services have not yet been set by the grid operator and the government, and are therefore estimated by us.

In the past years, incandescent and halogen lamps have been replaced by energy-efficient lighting in the common areas of at least 25 apartment complexes. Where this has not yet been done, this will be or will be included within the future maintenance planning.

In some cases, the current fixtures need to be replaced. Depending on the age of the current fixtures, this is included in the maintenance planning. After all, it is not very sustainable to replace these fixtures prematurely, as energy-efficient lighting only provides limited energy savings.

You will receive a notification from your electricity provider when it is your turn to replace your current electricity meter with a smart meter.

If the previous tenant of your home has refused the installation of a smart meter, you can arrange this yourself with your electricity provider. To do this, you first contact us by phone or MyVesteda. After this, you will make an appointment with your power supply company to have your current meter replaced with a smart meter. You will first pay the replacement costs (maximum 72.60 euros) yourself. You can claim these costs from Vesteda within six months by sending the paid invoice from the electricity provider to huurderszaken@vesteda.com.