How We Got Our Utilities Setup Before Our Move to the Netherlands

Setting up your utilities before you arrive if you have to do so.

Moving to the Netherlands often means finding housing before coming here or risk being displaced for longer. What comes along with finding housing?

Utilities.

We rented our place starting April 15th and moved in May 15th. That meant we had to have our utilities in our name on the start of the rental contract. Our real estate agent told us to use a company called Easy Nuts because they do the work of securing your accounts without you having a residence permit in place. That’s what I understood form this arrangement at least.

You still have logins and accounts directly with the companies but Easy Nuts is the intermediary that gets those setup.

On Easy Nuts you input your meter readings and choose a company that works for you. We went with a company called GreenChoice and we chose to not be on a fixed plan. That meant costs could vary but we were willing to risk it given we had no idea how long this experiment would last.

This program is essentially budget billing. Budget billing is essentially a set rate paid monthly and the cost you bank during summer months will offset the higher energy usage in the winter months. For example, we only averaged €80 in the summer but €700 in the winter. They bill you for the difference at the end of your year. Needless to say we have a large annual bill coming in May.

Right now with GreenChoice I pay €243 per month. That is subject to change. I’ll update this when we get our yearly bill to pay the difference of what we actually owe.

Easy Nuts also helped us secure our water through Dunea.

When I first arrived within a month I got a bill from Dunea for €55.92. That bill was for April to the September then they went to the standard amount we have paid since of €39.11.

Once you register with the municipality you’ll get a tax bill for water. I paid €132 in November for August-December water tax. They base this off when you are registered with the city from my understanding. Since appointments to register were a months long wait it saved us some money.

They send you this tax bill in January with a due date of March 31st so you have time to budget for it if you weren’t expecting a bill this large to come.

This one comes from Regionale Belasting Groep.

So yes, you will be responsible for 2 water bills. One is for the water itself and the other is for the delivery, treatment and disposal of the water.

I should have gotten a tax bill for trash but the landlord paid that for all of last years trash tax so I assume they didn’t send one because it wasn’t due.

Here’s this years trash bill. This one comes from where you are registered, for us that is Den Haag.

Other things you may need to consider but we didn’t are phones, internet and cable. Our rental already had internet and cable included and we got our own SIMs when we arrived for our phones.

Overall using Easy Nuts was truly the easy way to go and the rest is delivered after you register with your municipality. Trust… the bills will find you.

I hope this is helpful for anyone making a move to the Netherlands. Things are always subject to change but this is what happened for us.

Until next time,

Heather