Personal diary. - Some personalised views of moving to and living in The Netherland as an expatriate.

Moving to The Netherlands
When the novelty of the medieval cobblestone streets and houses and the invigorating experience of pedalling a bike for the first time since your teenage years wears off, you will encounter a few practical hurdles in setting up home in The Netherlands. Setting up home is not any more difficult here than in any other European country but the Dutch systems do differ from other states and sometimes people become frustrated by these differences. For example it is not possible to pay your phone bill by a credit card or by sending a cheque to KPN, very frustrating if you are used to the British or Irish systems. However you can pay either by direct debit, by a one off transfer from your bank, by paying cash at the Postbank (and a six guilder admin fee) or by sending a cheque to your own bank.

Where to live
Finding a place to live can be difficult in some cities such as Amsterdam due to the recent influx of both Dutch and foreign nationals all chasing the economic upturn. The most obvious place to start looking is with local estate agents or 'Makelaars', this can take the pain out of searching. Some agencies will charge an initial registeration fee (typically around NLG60), before you can even view properties and they will all charge a minimum of one month's rent in commission should you take the property. As is the case in every other country I've lived in estate agents ethical standards and efficiency can occasionally be questioned, be careful, do not sign any agreement until your happy with all the conditions.
There are a number of factors in a normal Dutch tenancy contract which differ from the UK or Ireland, firstly rental periods are typically longer due to the lower home ownership levels, it is not uncommon for Dutch people to rent a house or apartment for ten or even twenty years, therefore if you are intending to stay for significantly less than this period make sure your contract adequately caters for this as many cotracts have a notice period of three months. You may have a to pay a little extra in rent but always try to negotiate a shorter notice period. I have heard of some landlords asking for security deposits of three months or more, personally I believe this to be unreasonable and would recommend you pay no more than one month. As with living anywhere ensure you have a full inventory taken in your presence (and in English) before you move in.

One 'trick' which we didn't spot in our contract was a clause entitling the landlord to retain our deposit for two months after we had left to cover any 'unexpected' expenses. We hould not have to agreed to this, any expenses which could be left by a departing tenant such as utility bills are the sole responsibility of the tenant therefore the landlord has no cost exposure. The landlord can inspect the premises before you depart and raise any queries at that time. I cannot understand the rational in this clause apart from the obvious benefit to an unscrupulous landlord. If possible bring a Dutch national with you as a witness when you are handing back the premises if you feel there may be conflict and have the landlord sign something documenting the outcome of the meeting. Our lawyer also advised us to write to the landlord requesting the return of our deposit as this obligates him to respond officially.
Although my own recent personal experience with a local landlord was unsavoury, I know many people who have had reasonable and honest ones.

Electricity and gas
Eneco, the electricity and gas utility supplier estimate your usage and hence costs on an annual basis and divide this number by twelve and bill you for it. Make sure you get appropriate meter reading forms from them before you move in and when you leave and record the gas & electricity reading. I understand that the responsibility for water costs are also normally the tenant's though it seems to be usual practice that the landlord retains the account in his name, therefore ensure you get a before and after reading to calculate the costs.

Telephone
I have no hesitation in declaring KPN to be one of the most expensive phone companies I have come across. Add to this a recent EC-sponsored survey which rated KPN as the having the slowest delivery time of any European carrier for business leased lines (an incredible 140 days!!) and you get a feel for their customer focus. It is possible to have a KPN phoneline but use an alternate carrier for calls, I have heard people claim that OneTel (www.OneTel.nl) reduced their log distance and international call costs by half. Alternatively you could opt for a cable phone (and internet access) as a part of your cable TV service.

Internet access
There are a good number of internet access providers both of the free and subscription variety. DSL is at time of writing relatively wiespread in metropolitan areas, Planet internet bundle a KPN ADSL service wth their own service known as MXStream, though I must add that after eight arduous months of phone calls and botched communication I gave up the chase for broadband, this was not due to unavailability of DSL, it was simply that KPN and Planet Internet were unable to complete a working installation over an eight month period. However I do know several people who had seamless installations and are very happ with the service.

Mobile
The Netherlands has five mobile phone operators:
KPN Mobile
BEN
Libertel
Telfort
Dutchtone
Generally the service is good with solid coverge around metropolitan areas, perversly I found it cheaper to use a mobile phone than a landline, this must be unique in Europe. I did also have to pay a NLG1000 guilder deposit to use the phone internationally which was returned when I closed my account.

The information provided here is purely the personal opinion of the author and based on his experiences of living in The Neterlands. Please see our legal disclaimer section.