Riva Rentals Rotterdam

Slow to fix things, slower to pay back what they owe. Rented through Riva Rentals for a year. The kitchen with two ovens was the apartment's main selling point, but the sink stayed clogged for a full month, (reported on December 7th), no action taken till December 16, not fixed until January. When we moved in early, they had no trouble billing us for those extra days, bundled right into the deposit invoice. When we moved out two days before the contractual end date because of their own no-weekend-checkout policy, getting reimbursed for those same unused days took weeks of arguing. The deposit refund was confirmed in writing with no deductions, but still took repeated follow-ups and weeks past the contractual deadline before the money actually arrived.

Riva Rentals was generally slow to respond but, overall, our experience was pretty run of the mill until we checked out.<br><br>After checking out Riva withheld an obscene €532.30 from our security deposit. They charged €7 for a light bulb, when they are readily available from places like Action and IKEA for €1.50 or less, especially if bought in bulk, as you would expect a property manager would do.<br><br>That's not the extent of the nickel-and-diming, though, they also deducted €50 for a broken blind, which was broken when we moved in, and €66.55 for a broken radiator knobs, which were also broken when we moved in (we lived there over the summer and never touched the radiators). There were no photos indicating those items were in good repair on the check in report, and the burden of proof, legally, is on the landlord to prove affirmatively that the tenant caused the damages that were attributed to them. But Riva didn't let the legal standards stop them deducting those charges anyway.<br><br>The biggest charge by far was €408.75 for cleaning. This was a big surprise, as the property had very obviously not been professionally cleaned when we moved in. After using glass cleaner on the outdoor windows on the balcony, for example, the paper towels were completely black. I used almost a whole role of paper towels before they were clean. They probably hadn't been cleaned at all over the course of several short term tenants.<br><br>More importantly, the legal standard in the Netherlands is "broom clean." When we checked out, the property was cleaner than it was when we moved in. Riva attributed the need for cleaning to the toilet, which they said was particularly dirty (it was less stained than when we moved in). But, a charge that high means that the entire unit was deep cleaned, at our expense, when it wasn't delivered to us deep cleaned and the legal standard for turning over a property does not require the property to be cleaner than broom clean.<br><br>If you want an indication of how hypocritical Riva Rentals is when it comes to their cleaning standards, just look at their disgustingly dirty awnings at their office. They want to tell me that the place they delivered to us dirty, and we spent hours cleaning before checkout, was not clean enough, yet they don't seem to care at all about the appearance of their own office.<br><br>When I reached out to Riva asking for receipts and invoices for their charges to my security deposit, and requesting mediation, they did not respond. Now, I'll likely need to draft a complaint to the local resolution judge.<br><br>In the end, Riva Rentals is probably not any better or worse than most property managers. But, the bar is extremely low. For anyone who has rented recently or knows anyone who's rented recently, injustice is the norm. It's expected that property managers will be slow to respond, easy going on the check in, and extremely harsh and nit-picky on the checkout. And that, when calculating a withholding of the security deposit, they will come up with any excuse possible to try to keep as much of your security deposit as they can get away with (which is easy enough to do with expats, who, due to being transient by nature, are likely not to be able to contest the property manager's decisions locally without cost-prohibitive expenses).<br><br>Update: The court dismissed the action on technical, procedural grounds only, stating that the property owner, rather than the property manager (Riva) should have been sued. This was despite the fact that the lease stated unequivocally that Riva is the property owner's agent (with no exceptions listed), and the property owner's contact information (e.g., address, phone number, email address) was not included anywhere within the lease. The court did not make a determination as to the veracity of the accusations stated in my review, which I stand by.

Professioneel, goed meedenken met klant. Heel erg tevreden.

Wij werken al een aantal jaar met Riva Rentals als bemiddelaar voor de verhuur van onze appartementen en zijn over de hele samenwerking erg tevreden. Toen we onlangs te maken kregen met een juridisch conflict met een voormalig huurder, heeft Riva ons daar van begin tot eind perfect in begeleid. Dirkje heeft het hele traject opgepakt, ons steeds goed op de hoogte gehouden en uiteindelijk een uitstekend resultaat behaald. Wij zouden Riva in ieder geval aanbevelen!

Top team, zeer professioneel

Professioneel en snel geholpen, erg tevreden!

Professioneel en gezellig bedrijf met aandacht voor klanten en veel expertise in huis :)

Goed geholpen door het team van Riva

Leuk, jong, dynamisch team! Geven goed advies.