Remedies Against Administrative Silence in the Netherlands

This chapter introduces the remedies against silence of the administration in the Netherlands and provides data on the functioning of these remedies in practice. Single-case decisions requested by an interested party shall be taken within the time limit prescribed by statutory regulation or within a reasonable period, normally eight weeks. Three consequences of untimely decision-making by public authorities are distinguished. Firstly, an interested party can lodge an appeal with the administrative law court to order the administrative body to take a decision, as soon as the time period has expired and two weeks have passed since the interested party sent the administrative authority a written notice of default. Secondly, when these conditions are met, a penalty is forfeited for each day that no decision is taken. Thirdly and alternatively, a fictitious positive decision is deemed to have been taken. The chapter discusses the legal and practical consequences of these remedies.