Terms;

I will send a full contract on request. We use an English language rental contract.

All of our houseboats are rented out plus utility costs; in addition, the city of Amsterdam taxes all residences in the city, and some of those taxes are billed to the user [tenant].

The city will bill these to you directly if you're registered at the address. If you fail to register, they will bill me and I'll forward the bill to you.

The city also sends the annual "liggeld" or "precario" bill to the tenant; but as this bill is very high [about a month's rent], and is the responsibility of whoever is resident on Jan 1 of the year, I pay for this one. However, it is the responsibility of the tenant to foward the bill to me in time. If you rent a houseboat from someone else, remember to clarify this point.

For the sake of simplicity, I keep the energy, TV cable, and water in my name. I calculate the actual costs during your stay once a year or when you vacate. I can have UPC turn off the cable if you don't want it, or have internet through them if you want that. You will only pay me the actual costs as billed to me by the providers. See costs

If you want a fixed line telephone you'll have to arrange it yourself with. You can then get ADSL if you want.

My insurance only covers my property. I can't get insurance for your things, you have to get that yourself. Some tenants have had trouble getting insurance for their property [Inboedelverzekering], so if this is important to you, check before signing a rental contract for a houseboat.

We do allow dogs aboard, but not cats [due to allergy]. However, the tenant is responsible for any damage done, and / or extra cleaning costs [ie, commercial laundry for the linen, scratches in the wood].

All our boats are checked and cleaned from top to bottom [usually by me] before being rented out. After a tenant vacates, it's checked cleaned again just the same way [usually by me]. Checking the cleanliness and inventory is my job, but the departing tenant will be charged for any actual time spent cleaning.

We do not allow smoking cigarettes or burning candles on board; there are 2 reasons for this. Firstly, the interiors are entirely wood, so there is fire risk. Secondly, candle smoke sticks to the interior walls [it's a static electricity thing], and takes many hours to clean off with an ammonia solution. I don't want to do that again, and I'm sure you don't want to pay me to do it either. Please note that even if you obey these rules, you're still responsible for the cleanliness of the boat.

It is the tenant's responsibility to reasonably take care of the boat; to keep the windows and doors closed when it rains for instance, and to keep it heated through the winter [the heat may be turned down, but not off].

I'm responsible for maintenance, but the tenant has a duty to keep me informed of any problems.

Feel free to ask me any questions, just send an email