A stripped bathroom and holes in walls that have just been freshly wallpapered. Nicole van Klaveren from Uithoorn and her family are stuck with a ruin, while that should have been her dream home by now. After paying double rent for two months, the woman has her hands in her hair. “My piggy bank is gone.”
With the current crisis in the housing market, it is almost a blessing to be offered a social rental home. Nicole, her husband and their nine-year-old daughter were overjoyed when they finally got the chance to move after eight years.
During the viewing they especially noticed the considerable nicotine deposits on the walls, but ‘we solved that in no time’, thought Nicole. After she accepted the house, it turned out that there was a much bigger problem: there were dozens of cracks in the bathroom tiles.
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Family is without a bathroom, but with double rent – NH Nieuws
“We deliver the bathroom in your home free of leakage. Kit work, tiling and floors are intact”, Eigenhaard writes on its website. The housing association has not kept that agreement and therefore promises to install a new bathroom. The old bathroom has since been demolished, but that caused new problems.
Holes in the wall
“This is my daughter’s room. They also broke through this wall while demolishing the bathroom,” Nicole says, pointing to a gaping hole in the wall. Pieces of walls have crumbled in other rooms as well. The wallpaper that the family had just hung was destroyed as a result.
“My daughter is really sad. She has chosen everything for her room with so much love and now it looks like this and they leave us with this,” says Nicole. Because the work has now been stopped by Eigen Haard.
Broken tiles in Nicole’s bathroom
Broken tiles in Nicole’s bathroom
Damage from demolishing the bathroom
Damage from demolishing the bathroom
‘Work made impossible’
According to Eigen Haard, this is mainly due to a conflict between the tenants and the tiler, in which Nicole and her husband would have come across as intimidating. According to Nicole, it was the tiler who behaved aggressively. NH Nieuws tried to speak to this man, but he was not open to it.
Eigen Haard claims that this is not the only incident surrounding the renovation. “The residents have made it impossible for us to work in various ways,” a spokesperson said. According to him, Nicole and her husband no longer grant anyone access to the house. According to Eigen Haard, employees and contractors who have felt intimidated have no need to talk to NH Nieuws.
NH Nieuws did speak to an electrician who started work on the house on behalf of the contractor appointed by Eigen Haard and now has to put down his work. He does not recognize the behavior of Nicole and her husband that Eigen Haard describes and regrets that he cannot finish the job.
‘Sick of’
According to Eigen Haard, the situation is ‘unworkable’ at the moment. That is why the housing association is letting the situation cool down for a while and is trying to find a solution in the meantime. Nicole has reversed this month’s rent and has now also engaged legal aid. This morning a letter from Eigen Haard fell on the mat in which the housing association summons her to pay.
Nicole, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, is completely through with all the stress. “I’m really sick of it,” she says.