# termination of Dutch contracts in case of permanent relocation to Germany



## henk (Jul 5, 2010)

Dear expat community,
I have a few questions in regard of terminating contracts when leaving the country permanently. I’m a German citizen and live in the Netherlands. In 2 weeks, I’ll leave to the US for 6 months, come back to the NL in January for another 6 months and then return to Germany permanently.
I just talked to a person from the t-mobile service staff. He told me that I can terminate my current cell phone contract without notice in case of death or permanent relocation to another country. So far so good.
1. Mobile contract
Currently, I have an iphone contract that expires in September this year. In reference to the t-mobile staff, I could terminate my contract right now or take another cheap contract without a phone that adds up minutes which I could use when I return for 6 months.
However, I was thinking about extending current my contract, receive the new phone for a price of only EUR 100 and then terminate the contract when leaving. Therefore I would have paid only 100 + 30*12 = 460 for a new phone and free minutes/internet for 12 months (although I would not use all of them, it’s a good deal). My question now: since the iphone contract comes with a new phone and has a duration of 24 months, by Dutch law, can t-mobile charge any additional hardware fees for the phone in case of premature termination? The t-mobile person indicated this, but did not want to tell me how much these are and tried to change the topic over and over again. Therefore, I believe that t-mobile can NOT do that.
2. Tenement contract
I already terminated my apartment with notice. However, a friend of mine is also leaving the NL permanently and has a contract with a minimum duration of 12 months that expires 2 months after his departure. I read something about a minimum relocation distance of 75kilomenters on the internet (which definitely would apply to him). Question here: By Dutch law, can a he terminate his tenement contract premature?

Best regards,

Henk


----------

