Brabant mayors are regularly reprimanded by the judge if they have closed a drug house. According to the judge, they did not always look carefully enough at the consequences or did not explain well enough why closure was necessary. When a home is closed, residents sometimes find themselves on the street. According to judges, for example, medical circumstances and whether children live in a house are not always properly taken into account.
Judges have started to look more closely at how mayors deal with the closure of homes or businesses after, for example, drugs or a cannabis farm have been found there. Mayors do not always care about this. Some mayors close drug houses even though they know it will not stand up in court.
This is evident from research by Omroep Brabant. Professor Michel Vols is concerned. He deals with case law relating to public order. “You see that mayors do not fully understand the requirements they must meet to close drug premises. Families really suffer from this and end up on the street due to government mistakes.”
Judges stricter
In February 2022, the Council of State, the highest administrative court in the Netherlands, made an important ruling on closing drug premises. Omroep Brabant looked at 67 statements about closures in Brabant after that date. The municipality lost eighteen times, so in about a quarter of the cases.
For example, judges are now taking a stricter look at whether it is really necessary for public order and safety to close the building. In eight of the lost cases in Brabant, the judge found that this was not the case. For example, the mayor had not provided enough evidence of nuisance from the building or that drugs were being dealt. The judge also found three times that the proposed closure lasted longer than was necessary to restore public order.
Minor children
Judges also look more critically at the personal circumstances of people who lose their homes. In eight Brabant cases, the judge found that the mayor took too little account of, for example, medical circumstances or the fact that minor children live in the house. The judge writes in the rulings that it is difficult to find alternative housing and that tenants are afraid of being put on a blacklist, which makes it even more difficult for them to find a new home.
In this episode of HOW..? we will explain to you the closure of drug houses. Then read on.
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The closure often takes effect within a week. To prevent this, someone can go to court to apply for a so-called ‘provisional injunction’. This is a kind of interim injunction to keep the house open while the municipality reassesses whether the closure is really necessary. Sometimes the municipality then comes up with better substantiation and is allowed to close the drug house after all.
Complicated and expensive
Some of the eighteen closures may later turn out to be justified, but there are also closures that never make it to court. Not everyone goes to court to challenge a closure. Some people find it too complicated to go to court or do not have the money to hire a lawyer.
For its research, Omroep Brabant spoke with sources from the investigative world, who did not want to be named. They say that some mayors regularly close drug houses, even though they know that the closure will not stand up in court. The mayors want to show that they are taking tough action against drug crime. They sometimes pay less attention to circumstances that mean that a drug house has to be closed for a shorter time or not at all. The sources do not want to say which municipalities are involved.
Response from municipalities
Sebastiaan van ‘t Erve says on behalf of the national Association of Mayors: “I am shocked by these figures. It is a far-reaching decision to close a home. Then we affect people’s fundamental rights. If we do that, it must be done very thoroughly. These figures show that we need to do better.” Last Monday, Omroep Brabant has asked the municipalities of Tilburg and Eindhoven for a response. They were not yet able to provide a substantive response to the findings of our research.
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