Is an agency fee illegal please advice

Hello dear fellow expats

I moved into a new place 2 months ago okay and I had seen the advert on one of the many fbook housing groups. In the ad it did say that the agency will want agency fee n rent n deposit all at once before moving into the place. Later on I learnt that suchagency fees are illegal n must be paid by the landlord of the place to the housing agency.
the housing agency later on tell me that no fee was paid by landlord n theytake the money from the tenant itself.
I been to juridisch loket n such but no luck in trying to get my agency fee back sadly...and of course the agency beng being well established n suchsort of screwed me over n did not give me a reciept for the agency fee..
now please tell me your views and what I could do at all to get at least half of the fee back.
Thanks so much for your time everyone! !
Mer

Dear friend! It is not illeagal, agency fee will be applied when you rent a place via a broker that we call here Bemiderlaars in English it is brokers. They are between state agents as well private renters and the tenents ,They charge you for finding the place. You wont get money back I am afraid.
When you hire from brokers you have to pay
Agency fee _ bemidelling kosten+
First month rent+
KEy money _ borg
At once are you sure you did not recieve a paper with your renting contract? Normally they issue a factuur_ recept.

I don't think it's illegal. As the other commenter mentioned, that's how a broker works. I think it's best to avoid them if you can and work directly with the owner/landlord, but that's not always an option.