When tenants of landlord Cees van Leeuwen complained, they were suddenly left out in the cold

A cold, wet Christmas – without gas and electricity? You never know with a landlord like Cees van Leeuwen, sighs José Gonzales.

The Spaniard rents half an apartment in one of the monumental buildings of the former State Secretary on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. He is completely done with his landlord Van Leeuwen. Gonzales and his roommate have been left in the cold because they went to the rent board to enforce a rent reduction.

After that step the trouble started, says the Spaniard. Suddenly he had no electricity anymore. And then the gas was also turned off. He had not seen who had done that. The meter cupboard, where the connections are located, appeared to be screwed shut. The tenants then had to pay hundreds of euros to plumbers and electrical companies to have light and heating in their rooms again. That happened a few more times after that.

tenantJose Gonzalez We were in the dark and without hot water all week

The last time he was without heat and power was in November, Gonzales said. His 70-year-old mother had just returned from Spain for a week. “We were in the dark and without hot water all week. My mother couldn’t even shower properly.”

On Thursday, despite Van Leeuwen’s intimidation, his case and that of his roommate were submitted to the rental committee. They must decide whether they have indeed paid far too much rent in recent months.

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During an inspection of their apartment in mid-November, an investigator from the rental committee found, among other things, cracks and draft holes, non-closing windows, a “severely leaking” cistern, a broken oven, a bathroom with “broken tiles”, non-working extractor and considerable “dampness”. – and mold spots”. The maximum reasonable basic rent – according to the rapporteur of the rent committee: 476.84 plus gas and electricity – instead of the all-in rate of 1,950 euros per month that Gonzales now pays. The rapporteur also believes that his roommate’s rent should be reduced – from 1,200 euros all-in to 467.40, plus additional costs.

Described in April this year NRC expanded the fraudulent rental practices of Van Leeuwen, who was briefly State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science for the LPF in 2002. He then ran a consultancy and recruitment agency and made his mark as a slumlord of dozens of rooms and floors in Amsterdam and Leiden, among others, and as an operator of illegal Airbnb apartments.

Short-tempered character

Van Leeuwen attributes the many clashes he had with tenants to misunderstandings and his short-tempered character. He was also angry with the municipality of Amsterdam, which constantly bothered an honorable real estate owner like him with “regulation fetishism” and “disproportionate abuse of government power”.

Stories from a number of his tenants show that Van Leeuwen has changed little in his working methods since then. For example, he texted one of the Spanish tenants that he was considering passing on incriminating information about the man to the tax authorities. He also continues to charge too much rent for defective rooms and apartments. He ignores rulings from the rental committee. For example, a former tenant still receives more than 13,000 euros from Van Leeuwen after the rental committee retroactively reduced his rent from 770 euros to 182.79 euros earlier this year. The tenant has been waiting for that money for months.

When NRC calls Van Leeuwen after the tenancy committee hearing to ask about turning off gas and electricity, he immediately hangs up the phone. He does not respond to emails and apps.

‘Not so handy’

Outman Mgharbi, the property manager who spoke on behalf of Van Leeuwen at the rental committee, does answer, but says he cannot respond due to “legal confidentiality”. He says he doesn’t know anything about the shutdown, but he does know about “some disruptions.” Mgharbi: “We are trying to solve this properly.” He cannot say anything further substantively. “You really have to be with Cees,” he says. He calls the fact that he hangs up the phone “not very convenient.”

The worst thing for tenant Gonzales is that his landlord spends most of his time in his second home in Spain. “He is sitting comfortably in my country while he squeezes us out of here!”

The rental committee will make a decision in three weeks.

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