AtijdWonen Reviews

Arno and his staff were very helpful in finding me a wonderful apartment and providing me with support in my transition in moving to Utrecht. I can highly recommend them!

I must addmit that at the begining they were helpful, they even helped me sort out the utilities, since I do not speak Dutch. However, as soon as the deal was closed, the agent became very ignorant and unrelible, even thought there were some urgent things that needed to be sort out.

Very strange organization. Very poor customer contact and constant excuses are being invented. Fortunately I did not join forces with this party

I've been renting an appartement through Altijd Wonen for the last year.
However, the contact I had with them was not at all what Id expected from an estate agent. They where unprofessional, unreliable and very slow in all their actions. I understand that the housing market is hard, especially in Utrecht, but they did not provide the service they promised in the contract. When I proposed to not pay the full price for their services, they did however agree.

I am very satisfied with the way I qualified for a suitable home !. I have been looking for a nice place for myself for a long time and at Altijd Wonen I finally found my place :)

It is difficult to emphasize how badly this company works, how little effort is shown, how often even the simplest tasks prove too difficult, in short: how amateurish this mess really is. If you still have a choice between brokers, please choose another.

With Altijd Wonen you pay membership and also brokerage fees. You would therefore assume that Altijd Wonen then works for you. No less true. Certainly in a tight market such as Utrecht, Altijd Wonen does not have to be customer-friendly: they will lose the buildings anyway!

Always Living is permeated by this principle. This is noticeable by the downright anti-social attitude towards customers, the shocking amateurism in the field of everything that has to do with communication, the problems with making (and adhering to) agreements with both customers and landlords: so basically everything the company does.

The employees don't feel like paper (or the computer) without making mistakes. The language is unreadable, names are constantly changed, messages are unclear or are sent to the wrong people. If you have any doubts about this, read the employee responses to reviews below. You will receive messages about wrong apartments, with incomplete files and errors everywhere.

Always Living promotes itself in a funny way: they put non-existent or already rented apartments online. Responding to this is already hell since it is never recorded, but is made worse by the play that is performed every time: How strange, this is already gone .. but out of interest: what apartment are you looking for? This costs time and is extremely irritating, especially since you are already a paying member.

Communication is not forthcoming, leaving you with enormous uncertainty about your living situation. Appointments are postponed weeks. Just calling the company or individual employees is practically impossible due to both the miserable infrastructure and occupation of the company and the absolute resentment of the employees towards customers. Bubbles, messages, call-back requests: everything is ignored to the point that you wonder whether you would rather not have set fire to that money. I have had several moments where I thought I was scammed by a Nigerian prince: you send message after message, you never get an answer and you can only hope that those thieves can build a better life for your money.

You are going to hate yourself that you once started working with these people, also because of the vague threats that are being expressed about the money to be paid. Although you have not yet been able to read your contract and conditions, unfortunately: first transfer the brokerage fees, the deposit and the first month's rent. Then we can talk about whether you want to enter into this contract, handy right? For people who are not frightened by this, the comment is added in passing that you have lost your apartment to someone else in the same way as those who pay earlier. Despite the mutual declaration of intent that we signed, despite the fact that I was the only one who came to see, despite the fact that I have always acted in good faith and fulfilled agreements, and even though I do not yet know what is in the contract. It does not matter. Altijd Wonen wants money and the rest can die.

As an absolute blow, I also find out that the company has had a large data breach, where the data and passwords of 49,000 customers have been online for years. You can hardly be angry with the company: do they already radiate in everything that they are incompetent? In itself, a signal to all victims was not a superfluous luxury, but what did you expect?

If you value your mental state, I would rather give every other broker a chance than the people of Altijd Wonen.

Cheat and unprofessional. They try very hard to scam you. They did not return me my deposit. The agent is very hostile and rude.

Yesterday morning I received a call that the house I had responded to through Funda was rented, but there was another house in the same block for rent. It was asked if I could come by Tuesday. Because I am on vacation, it might also be possible today (the next day). After a text message and a confirmation I would have a viewing in an hour and a half, but just received a text message that the house has suddenly been rented out. Bizarre. I try to call to discuss this by telephone (had missed her call), but I have already received an automatic answer four times. Fortunately I already had doubts about the house, but I find it bizarre that they are trying to make you happy with a dead sparrow. Yesterday a feeling. The lady in question sounded as if she had just run 3 km. Probably from calling 300 interested people for that property. Luckily, I have found my place somewhere else :) Thanks for nothing.

[Edit] Schedules viewings without notifying the tenant or receiving confirmations. That is an extreme breach of trust. Claims it was a mistake but we have heard similar stories from other tenants. It boils down to a lack of respect. So install your own locks to be sure no one is going into your apartment without you knowing if you decide to rent an apartment with this agency.

Arno and his team were very helpful. They worked hard to find me a property that would take myself and my dog.

Through the previous tenant I came to a room in the center of Utrecht. The contract was arranged through Altijd Wonen and everything went quickly and smoothly. Contact went through the Whatsapp and mail. Whatsapp was responded to quickly and emails arrived on time according to agreement (by the way, they did end up in my spam that I never look into, so that might be something to watch out for).
I unexpectedly had to pay brokerage fees, but that has more to do with my own inexperience with renting through a broker. Belongs to it!
All in all everything went quickly, in a relaxed way and I now have a super nice room in Utrecht!

Found a great place in Utrecht with Altijd Wonen. Staff were friendly and helpful. Helped with any questions I had. Spoke great English so great for any expats. Would recommend

Edit 2: I had to complain about it for a year, but they refunded the registration fee. That is worth an extra star.

Original: I registered and responded to homes. I never received a response to this, so asked for my money back. There is one response to this that they gladly 'serve me', but after that they no longer respond to emails.

If you do not offer a service, you cannot charge money for it.
Are there more people who have done this?

Edit: it is not possible to respond to a response from the company, so this way.
You have only attempted to call me after I have complained that you have not communicated my requests. You have asked me for a telephone number in response to this complaint, but I have indicated that from then on you would only like to communicate by email, and asked for a refund of the amount paid. No response has been received to date.

So yes: you should have emailed earlier. But now you still have to email.

NEVER get involved with these guys! They are crooks! They charge agency fees without being entitled to this! If you try to contact them about that, they will not respond to anything!

Fantastic experience from start to finish. Viewing was organised at short notice and despite being closed. Extremely friendly and professional. Informed throughout process, would highly recommend. Both Arno and Gea are great, couldn't ask for more!!

Don't register. Saw some very nice apartment offers, paid a 20 euros registration cost to schedule a visit, am told the apartments are not actually available. They use shiny offers to lure people into registering in their website.

Very well arranged. I received a call that a studio in the center of Utrecht was available. I was able to come and have a look that afternoon and everything was arranged within a day. Then immediately made an appointment for contract signing and key transfer. Within 2 weeks I was on my new home in a super location in Utrecht! Are you looking for a home? Recommended!

Worst agency ever!! Expats and locals don't go there!!!
They try to make you pay fees you're not supposed to pay and are never reachable .They just contact you when they need something from you.
Unbelievable that they are licensed...

Before coming here I contacted a few other agencies who all told me that finding good housing in my price range for the dates that I wanted wasn t possible. Altijd Wonen found me multiple places within the first couple of days, and were very helpful throughout!

Good fast service, after contact immediately next day viewing and within two weeks rental contract. Nice people, do not hesitate to contact you! With Altijd Wonen we found a home in a prime location within a day; definitely recommended!

Since Dec 2019 we have been waiting for a refund of 1700 euros from this company. No contact, no reply to emails, phone calls, txt, not even an acknowledgement. Very pressing until we signed the contract and paid the deposit, though. After that the owner, Arno, disappeared. Our money are still due.

Honestly, incredible service from start to finish. The staff are extremely professional and polite and really do put their customers need at the heart of their service. I'm from England, I called up looking for an accommodation and even though the one I initially saw on the internet was not there, they suggested and offered another one.
They've been extremely helpful and lovely! I would highly recommend them!! Thanks Altijd Wonen

Really good and quickly arranged an apartment in Utrecht, exactly what I was looking for. Very flexible in thinking along with you and organizing a suitable solution for you. Highly recommended! :)

Thanks to Altijd Wonen I got the apartment close to the Amsterdam, so naturally, the outcome of the whole procedure was positive in my case. The agency is expat friendly - documents are translated and of course, the whole communication was in English. Event though Arno did not know me very well, he vouched for me while representing my case to the landlord and as a result, I was selected.
There were small mistakes here and there during the whole process (general terms were not sent together with the contract or wrong data in one page of the document), but as soon as they were discovered, either by me or Altijd Wonen, they were corrected in a friendly manner and nobody was blaming anyone.
As far as I have seen, the team consists of two people and they handle the rental market of both Utrecht and Amsterdam (possibly more). And considering how crazy and intense the market there is, it may not be a surprise that it is not always super easy to contact them. However, if I sent the message both via text and by the mail, I always got the reply in three days. And as a side note, I did not expect them to answer my message or a call during the weekends or holidays (they are also closed on Mondays). It may be good to check if it is a work-free day in the Netherlands before calling (I did this mistake). Overall the communication was very friendly and the provided information was helpful.
Lastly, as far as I have seen while searching for the apartment, this is the only agency which charged less that one month rent for their services, which for me makes up for these minor shortcomings I mentioned. Summarizing, I can recommend this agency.

Since 2 weeks I have visited two rental locations through Arno van AltijdWonen. Arno helped me very pleasantly with a new residential location, and carried out the necessary work smoothly and neatly.

In short, an extremely pleasant man to work with, whom I can gladly recommend to home seekers.

The offers are advertised in a good price but they are not actually available, they never remove it from the advertisement. They will let you know ONLY when you call them. Better to call them first, asking whether the rooms/apartments are available, then you pay for subscription. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time and money.

Suggestion for Altijd Wonen: Do not advertise the rooms/apartments that are no longer available!

Fine contact with Arno, the apartment can view several times. Finally found a nice apartment in a top location!

Following my reaction to an apartment, Altijd Wonen contacted to report that it was unfortunately already rented out. Fortunately there was also good news! An apartment in the center of Utrecht at a reasonable rent. Could have a viewing within a week, and a little less than a week after that came the announcement that my partner and I had received the apartment! We have not been a month since then and the move is already complete. For example, searching, getting and moving in a city like Utrecht can take a long time, but for us it has gone like a rocket via Altijd Wonen.

Do NOT work with this company !! Unfortunately I cannot give 0 stars. Let you pay costs that you do not have to pay and then you will never get a response when you want your money back !! Please beware and don't put your money into this business, outrageous !!

DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THIS COMPANY. I am owner that rented my house via Altijd Wonen. Altijd Wonen owes me one month of rent plus the deposit that the tenants gave them. They just stopped transfering me the rental money with no reason. So Arno Hage owes me almost 2000 euros, and he is completely missing. This is now in a legal process but still he is refusing to pay... I am afraid my money is lost

Initially, I was helped very well and Always Living still had a few houses outside of the website that I could come and see. Then also one of these chosen, but then it started. As soon as I had signed the letter of intent and had paid the deposit, the contact quickly became less constructive. Questions about the contract were dismissed with "that is normal", "that does not happen" or "you have to arrange this directly with the landlord", in addition I had to ask a few times before I finally had a (correct) copy of the complete signed contract.

From the beginning I tried to find out what the dimensions of the building were, so that we could buy furniture and equipment (we had to have a completely new furniture due to moving abroad). I was promised every time that an appointment would be made, eventually after a lot of running around of Always Living, this just never happened.

Furthermore, I only got to ask after more questions and push the contact data of the current resident a week before the key transfer, afterwards it turned out that the previous occupant had been asking for my contact details for weeks. When we finally could speak to each other, it turned out that she had already sold the stove and all the other things at market place due to lack of contact. A big missed opportunity.

I made the terrible mistake of paying the fee with this agency thinking that the customer service would be more proactive and that they really would try to find an apartment for me. Money wasted down the toilette. Not a phone call, not an email. I called them 3 times, I sent 4 email, I requested to visit 3 houses and absolutely no feedback. There are some agencies working in Utrecht with free service for visiting the apartments where they take it much more seriously than this one. Go to B&S, Vizier Makelaardij OG or Tots Vast. After nearly one month I found a house, not thanks to Altijd Wonen. I never had my money back either.

Very positive. We were looking for a home in the very heart of Utrecht in the very short term. Always live excels in customer service and convenience; not pay in advance, and no 8 page registration form o.i.d.

Always living has made our process easy. Priceless!

Together with my girlfriend I was looking for a nice and affordable apartment in Rotterdam but that turned out to be a bit more difficult than hoped for ...
At one point we were called by Altijd Wonen about an apartment in a super location in Rotterdam.
At first it seemed too good to be true and especially after we had been on the tour.
A super nice apartment in a top location for a very reasonable price.
Still, after reading some reviews, we were still skeptical.
We kept good contact with Altijd Wonen and in the end we were chosen for the apartment.
We signed everything last week and it all went very well.

This is why we write this review.

We were skeptical but are really very happy with the way of Living and the apartment that we have now received!

When shared details of a serious data-protection issue this company will respond with legal threats instead of resolving them; Don't ever trust any party like this with your data! The company has neglected updating their web frontend (and potentially backend) for over 5 years and clearly does not understand how that makes it part of their own inresponsibility.
At least 49.000 users' data turns out to have been effected and the site has for more then half a day now stated they would be back in a few hours (adding more insult to injury showing they don't understand the gravity of the situation in the slightest).

(Note: users must pay just to register, this means that all affected data was from users paying for this service. Which is beyond just unprofessional to not take care of.)

Very pleasant experience. We were looking for a home in Utrecht and had bad experiences with the blunt anonymous attitude of big brokers. Living has a positive and personal approach and we have found a nice home. We definitely recommend Altijdwonen.

one look at living space, which unfortunately went to another person.
But was immediately given the opportunity to see next. Which was even more attractive in terms of price.
Arranged immediately, everything was done in a few days.
At both visits the employee was already waiting for my arrival. Very nice.
Easily accessible by phone and by email.

A viewing is scheduled over the phone, but no one has turned up. After a long time and many attempts to call, we left. Very unprofessional.

We are assisted in a very professional and fast way by a property in Utrecht by Altijd Wonen. I can highly recommend this broker!

On the website they show a price of 950 euro per month for a rental home, then they give me a price of 1050 euro per month. How bad is this ... That in a short time these prices change so quickly for a similar space. Then my visit is canceled by phone. The private situation of another resident in the apartment is also discussed. All in all, very disrespectful. Then I mention that I find the way they treat me very disrespectful and customer-unfriendly, to which I (uninterested with the tone of it will) get the answer: thanks for your feedback we will take this. I have NEVER been treated so badly. Will never return to this broker. Not to be trusted!

Always advertise something that's not available and never take them out. The prices are attractive but they don't actually have the property. Such a shame! NOT RECOMMENDED!

Fast and clear service and handling! Within 2 weeks we had a viewing, drawing and key transfer. Because the company is so small, all lines remain short: very pleasant.

I want to rent a house in Amsterdam. I see a beautiful home offered through Altijd Wonen. I send a viewing request via email. Will not be responded to. I call and get a band that all employees are busy. After waiting for 5 minutes, the hook is thrown on it. After another call a different band that no one is available.
After a week (!) Trying to get in touch, I am tired of it
Too bad for those who offer the property on the Bosboom Toussaintlaan because this way you will never get it rented.

Dear reader, today 27-04 = 2014 I walk through the twijnstraat, my eye falls on an apartment on the Burg van Tuilstraat for 475 euros incl advance g / w / l. To my great surprise I go to your website and this property is not mentioned at all. Amazing and irritating, a niece had already informed me, apparently this is no longer true! There is now an apartment for rent for 555 euros and 20 m and before that it was 475 incl for 23 m [square meters, of course]. How does this work for you? In any case, I don't understand, please clarify this or make sure your shop window is up to date!
Hope to receive something from you.
Kind regards MCA Nieuweboer

Have paid and responded a few times via the site but they do not respond to that, and when you finally get hold of it by phone the house is already gone and they come up with more expensive alternatives and offer to search for you on a commission basis but all those living spaces are also just at the real estate agent on the sites .. people do not pay for home sites that is really everywhere on t net. Search with the brokers on the sites then you have more chance. Look at Funda which at least adds the original landlord so that you can visit their site.

They found me a nice apartment for my short-term stay in just a few days. Also, they helped me to activate all the utilities, including internet, which is a big help, specially if you don't speak dutch.

Do not join the sea. I am a landlord for a property. Offered to Altijd Wonen- Arno Hage on the advice of Pararius. With quick talk, he took over the deposit from the tenant and the first term. Arno would settle this with me. Still waiting (already 4 months) for my deposit and 1st rental period from Arno Hage-Altijd Wonen. And as can be read earlier. Phone is not answered, email is not responded to. If you are lucky you can reach the office.

I'd recommend to anyone who likes to waste their time for no reason - these guys were incredibly unprofessional.
I booked a viewing and gave them a call when I was at the address (as agreed), only to find out that the place was already taken... Mind you, I was the one to call them - no one thought it was a good idea to call me before the appointed time.

If I could give 0 star I would. A big bunch of incompetent. Doing viewings several times without asking for consents or confirmation from the curent tenant.