Judge: service charges for Luna tenants too high
On October 31, the judge ruled that the service charges billed by Camelot had been too high. 28 tenants of the Luna building on the TU/e campus had refused to pay Camelot. They felt that bills were often insufficiently transparent and excessive and that they had to pay for things that weren’t their responsibility, such as – on one occasion – cleaning up puke. The judge ruled in their favor and Camelot must compensate the tenants.
Camelot, now also known as Mosaic and Plaza Resident Services following several name changes, has been renting out studios in the Luna building for years. The problems with respect to service charges and bills already started in 2018. In 2021, many tenants took the case to the national rental committee, which ruled in their favor. Camelot decided not to defend itself to the committee. When all service costs were then scrapped, however, the company didn’t agree and wanted a judge's verdict. The first lawsuit took place in 2022. After an interim judgement in 2023, there is now a final verdict.
Excessive charges
The charges that the judge found to be too high were, for example, cleaning, the services of the caretaker, and electricity costs. Other charges that some residents didn’t agree with either, such as heating, water, and furniture (or replacement thereof), were, however, found reasonable by the judge.
Compensation
The court calculated that Camelot has overcharged the 441 tenants by thousands of euros in total. Camelot was ordered to repay the surplus service charges for 2018 and 2019. This means the 28 tenants will be receiving around eighty euros as compensation, a sum for which they’ve had to fight for years.
As it concerns 28 tenants, 28 verdicts were issued. These are all very similar. This article is based on this particular verdict.
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