A family from Annen has to pay the municipality of Terschelling 4,000 euros a month if they do not quickly turn their recreation farm on the Noordhoek in Lies a permanently inhabited home.
The couple tried to prevent this today for the Council of State, the highest court. The house had previously been their grandmother and they have been using it as a recreational home since the 1990s.
But according to the municipality of Terschelling that is not correct. A zoning plan from 2013 states that houses on the island may only be used for recreation if that was continuously on the reference date 1 June 1994.
According to the municipality, the house was rented out on the reference date as a permanent home and a family from Terschelling was registered. That family built a new home on Terschelling and lived temporarily in the farm.
But the man and wife from Annen say that the family had left the farm in February 1994, so well before the reference date. They had only forgotten to deregister.
The Council of State wants some documents and then rules on the penalty, which can amount to 24,000 euros.