30% more tenant reports: how growing communication pressure is changing property management

In 2024, more than 18,500 tenants and landlords filed a procedure with the Huurcommissie (Dutch rent tribunal), 30% more than the year before. At the same time, !WOON answered almost 80,000 questions about renting in the Amsterdam region in 2025. The question is not whether tenants are asking more questions than before, but how you deal with them.

Maintenance, servicekosten (service costs), rent: the issues that concern tenants are nothing new. What is new is the volume, and tenants' growing willingness to take formal steps. That makes communication no longer a side issue in property management, but a core process.

The rise in numbers

The growth in the number of tenant cases at the Huurcommissie tells a clear story. According to the Huurcommissie's 2024 annual report, the number of cases involving serious maintenance defects rose from just over 4,500 in 2023 to more than 5,800 in 2024, an increase of more than 30%. Compared with 2022, that is almost 50% growth.

Mould plays a leading role: in almost a third of the 5,200 concluded maintenance cases, mould was a (partial) subject. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, tenants won the majority of these cases. Woningcorporaties (housing associations) won 40% of the procedures, private landlords 33%.

The question this raises for you is not legal in nature. It is operational: how do you prevent a maintenance complaint from escalating into a formal procedure?

80,000 questions in one region

Procedures at the Huurcommissie are the tip of the iceberg. Far more questions never become formal. !WOON received almost 80,000 questions about housing in the Amsterdam region in 2025. Most concerned maintenance, service costs and rent.

This figure gives an impression of the underlying demand pressure on property managers across the country. For every procedure that reaches the Huurcommissie, there are dozens of tenants asking the same question through an informal channel: to their landlord, a legal advice centre or a neighbour.

As a property manager, you are the first link in that chain. How quickly you respond, how clearly you communicate and whether you proactively inform tenants about maintenance largely determines whether a tenant takes a formal step. An unanswered message or a missed call back is rarely the cause of a procedure, but it is often the trigger for one.

What top scorers do differently

The Aedes benchmark 2025 proves it can be done better. In 2025, 57% of woningcorporaties achieved an A score on the repair process, with an average rating of 8.1. A year earlier, this figure was lower. Housing associations that achieve an A score communicate consistently about the status of a repair: they confirm the report, inform the tenant about the schedule and actively ask for feedback afterwards.

The pattern behind these scores is consistent: tenants who know what will happen and when file fewer complaints. The flow of information does not need to be complicated. A confirmation that a report has been received, an update if the schedule changes, a message when the work is done. Three moments, each with a short message. That is enough to preserve the tenant's sense of control and reduce the chance of escalation.

The difference between housing associations with an A score and the rest, therefore, rarely lies in the speed of the repair itself. It lies in the communication around it.

Backlog maintenance is not the only cause

The rise in the number of tenant cases has multiple causes. In its annual report, the Huurcommissie points to deferred maintenance by landlords, delayed renovations and mild winters that encourage mould growth. But higher tenant expectations and greater awareness of formal rights also play a role.

That last point is structural. Tenants are better informed than five years ago. Organisations such as !WOON, the Woonbond and the Huurcommissie itself invest in accessible information. As a result, tenants find out sooner when they are entitled to a rent reduction or repair, and are quicker to demand it.

For you, this is not a threat but a reality to respond to. A well-informed tenant also expects their manager to be well-informed. If you react as though you are surprised by a complaint that has been running for weeks, you immediately lose credibility.

What helps is an active reporting system that lets tenants submit an issue easily and receive immediate confirmation. This not only resolves practical problems faster, it also documents the communication if a case does escalate. If you can show that you responded to a report within 24 hours and kept the tenant informed of progress, you are in a very different legal position than someone who cannot produce any record of communication.

Practical conclusion

The growth in tenant questions and procedures is not going away on its own. The demand pressure partly reflects backlog maintenance in the sector, but also higher expectations and a greater willingness to use formal rights.

If you take this seriously, you build a systematic approach around three questions: how quickly do we confirm a report, how do we keep the tenant informed along the way, and how do we close a case properly?

These are not the hardest questions in property management. But answering them consistently well makes the difference between a tenant who waits and a tenant who calls, and ultimately between a tenant who is satisfied and a tenant who starts a procedure.