Why the annual servicekosten (service charges) statement blows up your inbox every year

It's the end of May and you've just sent out the annual servicekosten (service charges) statements. Three weeks later, it starts. A tenant calls at eleven in the morning: he doesn't understand why the window cleaning costs more than last year, and could you perhaps explain what "CAI depreciation" actually means. Halfway through the call, a second call comes in from someone in the same building with practically the same question. Your inbox holds six new messages about the statement, all sent between ten at night and midnight.

This isn't a coincidence, and it won't get better by wording things more clearly next year. The pattern you're seeing now is exactly the pattern that researchers at Woonbond (the Dutch tenants' association) and figures from the Huurcommissie (the Dutch rent tribunal) have shown for years.

The pattern behind the spike isn't in your statement

A survey by Woonbond among 501 members found that only 42 per cent of tenants say they are fully well informed about the servicekosten being charged to them. Nearly half, in other words, are not. Among commercial landlords that share is even larger: 29 per cent report not even receiving an annual statement, even though it's a legal requirement. Among woningcorporaties (social housing associations), that figure is 19 per cent.

What lands in your inbox in June, then, isn't a reaction to your specific statement, but to a general lack of rhythm and explanation across the sector. Once a year, the tenant receives a document full of abbreviations and amounts that he suspects he's supposed to pay, but can't check. The Huurcommissie handled just over 4,100 new cases in 2024, up from 3,800 cases in 2023, and a large part of that rise is in service charges. For you, that means: even if your figures are correct, you'll get the kind of question that arises because the tenant has been told elsewhere that it's normal to be suspicious.

And this year something is added that reinforces the pattern

From 1 July 2026, the Service Charges Modernisation Act (Wet modernisering servicekosten) comes into force. The current non-exhaustive list becomes an exhaustive list: whatever isn't on it will no longer be allowed as part of the service charges. For statements covering 2025 that you're sending out now, that changes nothing legally, since those fall under the old rules. But the tenant reading about it online sees a statement with line items that, according to that article, will soon no longer be allowed. And that's when he sends that email at 11.47pm.

The question that comes in during June is therefore no longer just a process question ("is this amount correct?"). It becomes an expectations question ("will this even be allowed soon?"). You answer the first question by pulling out the receipts. The second takes more time, because the tenant is looking for reassurance about the future.

What makes a difference in the week beforehand

The inbox that fills up in June can't be solved by answering better. The gain lies in the week before you send the statement out. Three things work in practice.

A short, personally addressed announcement two weeks ahead. Not a generic mailing, but a message stating when the statement is coming, which period it covers, and where the tenant can look up his own advance payments. The effect is that tenants start preparing instead of being caught off guard.

A breakdown per line item in the statement itself, not just a total. So not "cleaning: 287 euros", but "cleaning of communal areas (Cleaning Company X, invoiced 22 times a year): 287 euros". A tenant who can see where a figure comes from asks the checking question less often. This is exactly what the Huurcommissie expects of a landlord in its assessment framework: the statement must match the actual costs and the advance payments made, and must be demonstrable.

A short explanation, separate from the statement, of what the law changes from 1 July 2026. Four sentences explaining that this statement for 2025 falls under the old rules, that the new law only applies to statements covering the second half of 2026, and that the tenant will see an adjusted format with the next statement. That takes away the second question before it's even asked.

What June shows about your process for next year

The calm in your inbox at the end of July can almost entirely be traced back to what you sent out in May. A statement that raises no questions isn't a stroke of luck, and it isn't about having better tenants. It's a statement that answers the questions the tenant would otherwise only get round to asking. For 2026, that becomes more pressing: from 1 July you'll need to adjust your system to the new list anyway. June is therefore a reasonably good moment to see which line items in your current statement raise the most questions this year, and to build that straight into the new format. What's a spike in your inbox now becomes, in twelve months, the foundation of a statement that saves you a great deal of work.