If you hold your utility contracts yourself, at the end of the year WML will send you an invoice detailing your usage and the actual price of the water used. They will then either reimburse you if you paid too much or ask you to pay the difference if you used more than the amount payed for by your regular payments. The same type of invoice will be sent by your provider of gas & electricity. This bill is normally sent to the person who has been living there the longest, but should be divided between all residents. Depending on the bill, you will either need to pay the difference or the difference will be paid out to you if you used less than anticipated.
Service Costs
If you signed a contract that includes Service Costs, your landlord needs to provide a annual nota and calculation called an “eindafrekening”. They need to do this before the 30th of June of the next year. It should include an itemized list of the actual costs and the advance payments made by the tenant. Every item, like electricity, gas, furnishing, cleaning etc. must be clearly listed. Costs and payments are then balanced. Sometimes the tenant will need to pay extra but sometimes they will get money back. If the landlord and the tenant disagree about the amounts, they can present their case to the rental tribunal (Huurcommissie) or the district court (kantonrechter) at any time and the payments may be lowered if necessary.
BsGW
Besides the final settlements for your utilities, every household will receive a bill with the municipal tax once a year. This bill comes in form of a letter from the BsGW and tends to be shockingly high (somewhere around 400€). On a page in our finances section, you can find out how to apply for a reprieve from the BsGW bill!
