Amsterdam tenants’ rights group Woon received 11,000 complaints and questions last year, with poor maintenance, high rents and service costs accounting for the bulk of the problems.

In addition, at least 100 international residents approached Woon with problems about deposits which were only partially refunded when they left a property, or were not refunded at all.

Other common complaints involved landlords who intimidated tenants or refused to fix problems, or even threatened to turn off the heating during a conflict.

Many tenants also complained out unclear extra costs they were charged, particularly youngsters living in ‘community’ housing with extra service fees to cover shared services. The most high profile of these is Change= which was ordered in court to cut its community fees.

And in one case, a Russian national was told to leave her home on the basis of her nationality, in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

While many of the problems centred on private landlords, housing corporations did not get off scott free, with reports about poor service and failures to tackle damp and mold.

Amsterdam housing chief Zita Pels told councillors earlier this week that she would study the Woon report in depth, with the aim of ‘tackling bad landlords as much as possible’.

MPs have already agreed that the two-year rental contract should be scrapped as a standard option and plans are also underway to bring in a licencing system for landlords.