I am in the process of collecting money from my old landlord who severely over charged us for utilities. She owes me and two other tenants more than 10k.

This was the outcome of the huurcomissie which she appealed in court. This was rejected and imposed with interest by the judge and the landlord is past the appeal period. As she can literally do nothing else to delay this (ongoing for almost 3 years now), finally she has proposed that she can pay us our initial charges set forth by the huurcomissie without the interest that the judge imposed on them. Her proposal is that she will pay 250 euros per month and pay us back bit by bit across 12-14 months.

After 3 years of waiting, I am a bit sick of her always delaying the payment and now not wanting to give us the interest for the delay.

We could go to a bailiff now, but my lawyer is saying that there may be risks in the collection process. We know for a fact that she sold the apartment we rented for a hefty profit 2 years ago. But she may not have income that a bailiff can impose a collection towards for example, and that got us wondering if we should just accept the deal or risk it and proceed with a bailiff who may not be able to retrieve the amount owed to us. (She also owns an apartment worth 500k, but my lawyer said it will not be possible to sell such an expensive apartment for an amount this small. We don’t know if she has any savings, or smaller assets that can be sold for collection)

How do the bailiffs work in Netherlands? What would you do in my situation ? Would you try to negotiate a deal or pursue with a bailiff not knowing what they can collect back.

Thanks in advance for your reply.