Students are fed up with overdue maintenance after a fire that is difficult to reach: “Entrance closed for a year”

For Joshua and other residents of a student complex near Sloterdijk station, the end is full: according to the students, their landlord XIOR is negligent in overdue maintenance. For Joshua, the decisive factor was that his house burned down two weeks ago to the point of being uninhabitable and the fire brigade could not easily reach the house because the main entrance had been closed by a wooden partition for at least a year.

Joshua was not at home when the fire started in his kitchen, but his girlfriend was. “She called me to say the house was on fire.” In the end, his two cats did not make it.” Some of the main entrances to the three buildings next to each other have been broken for some time and – according to the landlord for safety reasons – there is a wooden partition in front of them. Joshua does not lay the blame for the fire, but he does take responsibility for safety afterwards at the landlord XIOR. “The fire brigade could not get through the main entrance, ultimately our house was declared uninhabitable. This is not okay.” Dhe problems are piling up for Joshua and his fellow residents on the Naritaweg.

Delivery time

The fire brigade confirms that the wooden plate in front of the entrance made extinguishing the fire more difficult. A spokesperson: “We cannot say whether the fire would really have been smaller if we were able to get through the front door. The fire was still extinguished quickly, for example, there is no damage to other homes. But it has not made it any easier. “

But regardless of the seriousness of the fire, Joshua and his fellow residents unite to make a point to the landlord: “We often send emails with defects in the building, but the answers are actually always the same and only talk about long delivery times. Products.” Several emails that AT5 has seen show this. For example, the bulkhead in front of the door has been there for about a year, but there are also other defects: “Lights that have been broken for six months, a gate to the closed parking lot that does not work.” He doesn’t feel taken seriously: “As if they say: just pay us money and that’s it.”

A spokesperson for XIOR says that it takes fire safety seriously. XIOR would not have thought that the risk would be so great if the main entrance was closed in this way. “We could have communicated better to the residents what the alternative escape routes would be in the event of an emergency while this door was not functioning.”

Mandatory recovery period

The !WOON Foundation assists residents of the complex and helps them take action together against the landlord with regard to recurring overdue maintenance. Julian Neugebauer: “The landlords no longer feel heard.” According to Neugebauer, XIOR should provide maintenance for these types of defects within six weeks: “That is legally required, so it has to be done.” He is now hiring a lawyer for the residents to take legal action against the landlord.

XIOR explains the overdue maintenance by the delivery time of products such as front doors. That is exactly what the residents also get in return from the landlord. A spokesperson: “There is certainly understanding for the complaints and impatience of our tenants. Because the delivery time of the sliding door can vary from 4 to 8 weeks, a temporary door is placed in the block. We are not aware of any other defects. .”

“I really don’t have any confidence anymore that this will work out,” said Joshua. Together with other residents, he goes to court for summary proceedings, accompanied by a lawyer.