The brand new apartment complex The Marker in the center of Breda had to become a prestige project. An eye -catcher, modern and comfortable living in the heart of the city. But for the tenants of residential tower A, on the Markendaalseweg, the reality turns out differently. Since the delivery in April, the problems have been piling up. From a broken lift to problems with the garbage facility.
“We just think it’s really bad,” says resident Bram Spijkers (28), who does the word on behalf of many residents. “We have a beautiful apartment, but there are so many defects that the entire living enjoyment is ruined. We are angry, really very angry.”
When Bram starts the tour of the building, a great frustration immediately reveals itself. The lift has been out of use for two months. “He should have been repaired after a month, but then the wrong parts were delivered. Then it was postponed for another month,” says Bram.
“Because of the broken lift you are trapped in your own apartment.”
Residents of the upper floors must control 18 stairs every day. “For young people that is already hard, let alone for the elderly or if you have an injury. You are just trapped in your own apartment. Moving is a disaster: we recently had to take a bank to the ninth floor with a group of tenants. That is actually no doing.”
But the waste supply is also a source of annoyance. The container space of building A is too far from the street, so that the municipality refuses to collect the waste. “We have to take our dirt a little further in building D,” explains Bram. “The bins are overcrowded, there is waste next to it, it stinks and vermin is coming. The people of both buildings are not happy with it.”
And so there are many more defects on the list of Bram and his roommates. In addition to the practical problems, they also feel financially undressed. They pay 70 euros every month in upholstery costs for curtains and floors. “If you calculate that, we should get new curtains and floor after two years,” says Bram. “While those things last much longer. That’s just not right.”
Arriving in the stairwell, the service costs of 125 euros per month are also discussed. They also turn out to be a thorn in the eye. “We pay for cleaning the general areas, but since April there has never been a cleaner,” continues Spijkers. “Just look around: it’s a mess in the stairwells. And yet we have to tap that amount every month.”
And that is not all, because parking turns out to be a luxury at The Marker. In the underground garage a place costs 200 euros per month, while residents cannot get a permit to park for the street. “We would have liked to know that before we came to live here,” sighs Bram.
“We don’t get an explanation and no perspective. As if we don’t matter.”
This brings us to what the residents perhaps put the most: they think they are inadequate communication from the landlord and contractor. “We recently received a simple e -mail that the repair of the lift will be postponed for another month. No explanation, no perspective. As if we don’t matter.”
The Marker residential complex was presented at the launch as a high -quality new -build project, but the residents find the reality extremely disappointing. “In March I heard that I could come and live here and I was completely enthusiastic,” says Bram. “But now, a few months later, it feels like a nightmare. We should be happy, but instead we are angry and exhausted. It costs a lot of energy.”
The residents demand that the defects are resolved and that there will be a financial compensation. Bram: “We just have to swallow it all. This really is not possible. We are entitled to a decent house. We feel Besodemieterd.”
Response Landlord
The apartment complex is rented by the Van Deursen Group (VDG) in Rosmalen. In a response to Omroep Brabant, the landlord announced when asked that he will not recognize himself in the lack of communication.
“Due to complex water damage, the lift has fallen defect. Due to the holiday period and circumstances that fell outside the owner’s sphere, the repair has been delayed. As we have communicated to our tenants,” says a spokesperson.
In the meantime, according to her, the repair is planned for Friday. In order to limit the nuisance for the tenant as much as possible, the lift of the adjacent building has been made temporarily available for the tenants in building A.
“The distance from the municipal collection point for waste up to the container space has been rejected on the basis of the health and safety legislation. Unfortunately, this was unknown at the time of construction,” the spokesperson continues. According to her, work is currently being done on a architectural solution with which the container space will be located within the required distance. Until that time, tenants can store their waste in a container of the adjacent building.
Furthermore, the Van Deursen Group says the frequency of cleaning stairwells’ to ‘adjust if necessary’: “However, this is a recently delivered complex in which many removals still take place.”
About the amount of the upholstery costs and costs for a parking space, the landlord says that they have been communicated to the tenants in advance. “Tenants are free to rent a parking space within the complex or not.”
