Hi all,

I attend Maastricht university, and live in a student house with 5 other females, our rental agency proposed an increased the GWE allowance starting in March w/o a proper invoice or justification, doubling what we all currently paid. As such, given this agency has sucked, we were wary about the legality of this request (YES- acknowledging the global energy crisis) it was a red flag they didn't give a invoice to justify the increase, and this agency has a tendency to take advantage of international students

Contacting a free legal service for international students, they told us the request was illegal, yet to also put money aside, because ofc we will probably owe money at the annual overview. The company kept invoicing us like the advance was rent money, and all of us agreed to not pay, telling us we were breaking the law, and that they would contact a debt agency. LOL.

The legal service also wrote an objective letter for us, and sent it to the agency last week, regarding the necessary steps of an increase by Dutch law. As such, they finally respond to our request of the annual overview. With a BS excel document, only outlining the months september 2022-April 2023....8 months, no document from the energy company was provided, simply screenshots from our landlords phone, over 1 week, nothing connecting our address, and even the days were broken down, 4 months provided indicated the same use. I'm gonna attach 2 images of what they provided over 2 months....?

We have since contacted the free legal service again, because this raises more redflags, can anyone familiar with this behaviour speak to any outcomes? As of now we have no paid a penny of the increases as a household, furthermore, shouldn't they have provided PDFs issued by the energy company? Also, shouldn't it only have been 2022?...and didn't gas/energy costs start to go down a bit this year?

Any insights/ opinions are appreciated, I am moving out at the end of July, and I would ideally like my deposit back.

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