ARRIVING IN

THE HAGUE.

The arrival of
international students A GUIDE ON
is growing yearly at a ROOM
rapid pace. Start
your house hunt in HUNTING IN
time—read: as early THE HAGUE
as possible— to
TIPS & TRICKS ON HOW TO AVOID
increase your
QUESTIONS? SCAMMERS IN THE HAGUE
chances on finding an
accommodation.
help@shth.nl
www.studenthousingthehague.com

Student Housing The Hague

Wegastraat 44 - 1A.08
2516 AP The Hague, Netherlands
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Due to a shortage of student rooms, land-lords find
DON'T AIM TOO HIGH
themselves in a luxurious position. This, unfortunately,
You want a place of your own, ideally a studio or apartment. That is most
often results in taking advantage of international
likely not going to happen. The housing market is simply over-heated and if
students. They ask ridiculous high rental prices and
you are coming from abroad it is difficult to find housing at such a distance.
they do not carry out the adequate maintenance.
The requirements for renting a room (while being abroad) is less complicated.
Tenants have a lot of rights in the Netherlands but
The majority of the students start with a room in a shared apartment.
are often unknown by the international students.
If you can’t find your ideal accommodation, start with a short-term lease and
continue your search when you have arrived in the Hague. If you need to
Important Notes:
obtain a BSN in the Netherlands, for instance, for opening a bank account or
• It is mandatory that the room has at least one
other authorities, you can apply for a temporary BSN number. Read this blog
window that can open.
to find out how you can obtain a BSN without registration in the Netherlands.
• When staying longer than four months,
registration is always mandatory. Read more
about this on the blog of www.shth.nl.
SCREAM OUT LOUD
• Agencies are not allowed to ask any fees, unless
you hired them to find you an accommodation. Make sure that everyone knows that you are looking for a room. Post it on your
Read more about this at the blog of www.shth.nl. Facebook, in different groups and inform your family, friends, friends of your
parents, neighbors, anyone. Who knows who they know who might know
• If it seems to good to be true, it often is. Does the
someone who has a spare room for you. Inform at your university, library,
landlord/agency require an upfront payment?
supermarket if you can hang up an advertisement with such a request. And
Always try to ask someone to go visit the viewing
perhaps, if any of your friends are already in The Hague, they might be able to
for you. If there is no one who can do this for you
help you do this in The Hague.
or if you need an extra check on the landlord or
accommodation, you could consider the help of
www.housingcheck.nl.
More about this on page 5.
 WHERE DO I LOOK ? OTHER USEFUL INFO
Get in touch with other international
students and expats. This group shares
FACEBOOK questions and experiences regarding the
abroad/expat life in the Netherlands; Expats
fb.com/groups/denha
There are several Facebook groups which you in The Hague (Den Haag) —
ag.housing
can join and start your search for a suitable fb.com/groups/2406969948
accommodation. Most of these advertisements
fb.com/groups/kamer.
are by students who are trying to find a Buy and sell your (second-hand) items.
in.denhaag
roommate. Some-times you can find an offer These groups gives you the opportunity to
for an entire apartment of studio as well, but buy things from other international students
fb.com/StudentHousin
these are quite rare. or expats, who are leaving the country.
gTheHague 1. For Sale in Den Haag—
Always stay alert! All Facebook housing fb.com/groups/199645606765902
groups are infiltrated by scammers. 2. For free and for sale in den haag—
fb.com/groups/550948418340058

Follow ‘Study in The Hague’ to stay updated

about, well the title says it all, your study
OTHER WEBSITES and stay in The Hague;
fb.com/studyinthehague
funda.nl/huur/den-
There are other useful websites which you can haag
use to find your ideal accommodation. A sneak-peek before coming to the
kamernet.nl/en/for- Netherlands or just in for a good laugh? ‘The
Just make sure to never pay any agency fees. rent/room-den-haag Amsterdam confessions of a shallow man’;
An agency who is working for the landlord is fb.com/expatshallowman
hired and being paid by the landlord and there- pararius.com/apartme
A Dutch English magazine about (mostly)
fore cannot ask any money from the tenant. nts/den-haag
the Netherlands; fb.com/Dutchreview
 HOW TO SPOT A SCAMMER ?
If it’s too good to be true, it is! A room in The Hague will cost you approximately between
the €500,00 to €700,00 all inclusive with registration. Deposit is at least one month deposit,
Going abroad is already a no more than two months. Anything more or less should ring bells.
big adventure, both
Look at the profile creation date. If the profile is created recently and a lot of information
financially and socially,
and pictures are added (to increase credibility) in a very short time. It could be a scam as
without being scammed.
well.
The increasing demand for
rooms, and the distress that Search for their name in the search bar. Stay on the lookout for multiple advertisements in
comes along when trying to different groups and cities (reference 1).
find a suitable Check their joined groups. If they joined different groups in different cities and countries,
accommodation makes it’s 9 out of 10 times a scammer (reference 2).
international students a Look at the name in the url. If the name in the url is different from the profile name, it’s
fairly easy prey for most likely a scammer (reference 3).
scammers. Take a look at their likes. If they like strange pages, such as; being an ‘Italian’ but liking all
Nigerian artists and fashion. It’s most likely—read: definitely— that you are dealing with a
Hence the following two;
scammer from Nigeria (reference 4).
Look closely at the description. If the description is too generic, it should ring bells. Which
HOW TO SPOT A bus/tram stops nearby the apartment? Close by a park, which park? If a landlord wants to
SCAMMER rent out, it will give more information than a generic description (reference 5).
If the comments are disabled. They do this because they don’t want people who know they
HOW TO AVOID are scammers to ‘ruin’ their advertisement (reference 5).
GETTING SCAMMED Only e-mail communication. If the e-mail address is different than the profile name it is 9
out of 10 times a scammer (reference 5).
The landlord lives abroad. This way they try to avoid you asking for a viewing and trying to
make you pay upfront so they can ‘send’ you the keys or so they can fly back to give you the
viewing. This is a no-go, don’t fall for it!
HOW TO AVOID GETTING SCAMMED ?
JOIN (DUTCH) HOUSING SCAMMERS EXPOSED on Facebook The advertisement looks legit,
This Facebook group exposes scammers who are active on the Dutch housing market. you even got a viewing and a
Most of these scammers are active in many other cities and countries as well, hence the tenancy agreement. Are these
brackets. You can find tips & tricks regarding ‘avoiding getting scammed’, ask housing the requirements to ensure the
related (legal) questions, share experiences and read those of others. This is the no. 1 validity of the accommodation
place when starting your house hunt! and landlord? NO. There are
many ‘hidden’ pitfalls where
FOLLOW HOUSING CHECK on Facebook most people do not think about
This company provides; 1) background checks on the landlord, 2) legal checks on the nor know about. Think about,
property, 3) legal advice on your rental agreements and 4) they visit your viewings amongst others,; 1) is the
when you cannot make it yourself. They check all possible pitfalls and even give out landlord the person he claims to
guarantees on their reports. Meaning, if the property and landlord come through the be?, 2) does he have the permits
checks positively and you still get scammed by the landlord, Housing Check covers up to
to rent out the property?, 3) Is
€1.000 EUR damages. Visit their website to read more about their services;
there a default on the mortgage
housingcheck.nl/services
payment? These are just a few
examples of pitfalls where you
CHECK RentReturn
can stumble upon and can result
This is something to look into after you signed your tenancy agreement. Many take
in you losing your room and the
advantage of international student because they have little or no knowledge about the
upfront payments; the deposit
Dutch housing/rental law. They request illegal fees from the tenants, such as; 1)
and rent.
mediation costs, 2) agency fees, 3) contract costs and more. Just keep in mind, if you did
not instruct the agency to work for you, like searching a room for you, you do NOT have
to pay any agency fees, period. More about this in our part 2: Tips & Tricks of living in
the Netherlands.
REFERENCE 1
REFERENCE 2
 REFERENCE 4

REFERENCE 3
REFERENCE 5