A student is standing outside the entrance to the landmark building. Ibrahim Teymurlu (Data Science & AI) has been living there since March this year. He sleeps with a portable heater in his room because his heating system is malfunctioning. One moment it’s too cold, the next it’s too hot. He doesn’t care that the lease states that using a portable heater is forbidden. Nor did he report it because “nothing changes anyway.” He lets Cursor in to talk to more students. The first floor is huge, but feels cold and empty. The six elevators with neon-colored LED lights do brighten things up a little bit. “Two are broken right now.”

Sitting at a table in an empty common room, studying for her exams, is Sasha* (Industrial Design). She has lived here since September 2023. Back then, there were also problems with the heating. She has never reported it until now. “I just wait for someone else to do it,” she says with a sigh. Students are despondent. Even when they do complain, it accomplishes nothing. And once the problem is fixed, it’s only a matter of time before the heating breaks down again. When they create an online ticket to report a defect, the response comes back late or not at all. “On weekends, no one comes by anyway, so if you’re without heating, you have to wait two days before there’s a response.” There’s also an emergency number, but several students say it can’t always be reached.

During a second interview, on a Friday morning, Sasha* tells us that she made her first report just before our interview. The heating failed completely and she had to buy a heater. Monday afternoon, she received a reply. Her repair request has been confirmed. She will be contacted shortly so the janitor can measure the temperature in the room. That information will then be relayed to the repairperson so they can adjust the temperature. The date and time aren’t specified. She says she has had problems with the heating 'at least six times’ in the past three months.

Teething problems

After the visit to the VB building, as the old headquarters is called, a duo interview takes place with one of the owners of the property (the company Ten Brinke) and TU/e. “The university isn’t allowed to build student housing,” explains Jan-Willem Schellekens, deputy director of Real Estate at TU/e. “What we do – or at least try to do – is bring parties together to realize student housing.” He says he recognizes the complaints from students.

“It’s a pain that this is how it is at the moment, but we are confident that things will improve rapidly in the months ahead. In fact, the owners have concretely indicated which points they are working on and which ones they’re also planning to tackle. And we will continue to be involved in that as well.” Schellekens emphasizes that there’s room for improvement, especially when it comes to communication with students.

Ten Brinke’s commercial director Johan Hofmans is also there. In 2021, Ten Brinke and Bekke & Partners (BPRE) became owners of the listed building. According to Hofmans, the heating system of the former office building was still attuned to that function. Adjusting it to its new one took more time than expected.

Different nationalities

In addition, students had yet to be correctly informed of how the heating system works, given that several rooms are connected to one thermostat. ‘This resulted, for example, in students placing their own heaters in their rooms, causing the thermostat to switch off. As a result, the heating demands of other students on that floor weren’t met,’ he lets us know in writing after the interview. The owner can’t completely rule out that the problems will keep popping up in the future. ‘Furthermore, with about 55 nationalities, we have a great diversity of residents in the building, each of whom has their own expectations in terms of temperature,’ Hofmans writes.

Zjef Bogers, owner of Holland2Stay, which manages the property, also emphasizes that cultural differences can play a role in heating complaints. “We receive the complaints and tell the janitor what to do with them. When the latter checks the room, sometimes it turns out it’s already 21 degrees Celsius there. The system simply cannot be set to a higher temperature. Of course, that can be disappointing, especially for students who are used to a warmer climate. So then the complaint is ‘resolved,’ but not to their satisfaction. And that can be frustrating for those students.”

Other defects

A call placed in the building’s group texting app leads to contact between Cursor and five other students. They confirm the stories of the problems with the heating system, although not all of them were affected equally. They also all mention the poor communication from Holland2Stay.

Student Konstantinos Kyratsopoulos (Electrical Engineering): “The emergency number never works. Last weekend we had a power outage, but nobody came by until Monday, with refrigerators and induction plates not working.” Communication could also be better, he believes. “We have asked them to explain what’s going on, why we are experiencing these problems. We ask for explanations and transparency, but get back generic answers, written with ChatGPT. They don’t care about the building at all, it seems.”

In addition to poor communication and heating system deficiencies, the basement flooded in December 2023. Since March, it has been free of water. Structural changes are still being made to ensure it remains that way. As the cleaning was also substandard, the cleaning company was let go. A new one started on November 1.

Service charges

A flooded basement, inadequate heating, substandard cleaning, and slow communication. After all of that, the service charge financial statement arrives in September, amounting to 450 euros per person for the last four months of 2023. Hofmans reveals that the service charges were actually higher, but that Ten Brinke and BPRE themselves contributed 70,000 euros.

According to Ten Brinke, the fact that the financial statements only arrived in September and not in July, as required by law, was due to the fact that they were waiting for money from a temporary subsidy scheme for accommodating block connections, an allowance for the high energy rates in 2023. As the property was only occupied in the last four months of that year, they weren’t granted the allowance. The affected parties then filed an appeal to claim the allowance for the last four months of the year. Should this appeal be granted, “100 percent of the money will go directly to the students,” Hofmans and Bogers emphasize.

Huurteam Eindhoven, a center that helps tenants with conflicts with landlords, recognizes the students’ complaints about the defects with the heating. They also know about the high service costs. “When questions come in from tenants, Holland2Stay is always willing to enter into dialogue,” says consultant Nick de Liège. “In some cases that leads to a solution. It’s a big commercial company that needs to make a profit, which is understandable. They’re not in it for charitable reasons.”

Improvement

Hofmans (Ten Brinke) adds in writing that several measures are being taken to improve the living situation. In addition to repairs to the heating system, the temperature in the common room has been increased. Elevator maintenance is in progress and the layout of the first floor will be revised to enhance the atmosphere. Communication from Holland2Stay is also being improved, by increasing responsiveness and keeping students posted by way of a monthly newsletter.

Ibrahim Teymurlu, meanwhile, is without heating once again and is still sleeping with a portable heater in his room. Although his roommates have filed a report, he has no idea if anything was fixed.

A week after Sasha* made the report, she texted us to say that someone came by to check the temperature. Five days later, she texts ‘I don’t know if they did anything, but things are better. Except for Thursday night when it was cold again, but not as bad as a few weeks ago.’ She goes on to say that she sees improvements. With respect to communication, for example. ‘The fire alarm went off at five in the morning. We called the emergency number and by six o’clock the issue was solved. In general, they (the building manager, ed.) are doing a better job than last year.’ Other students confirm that communication has improved.

*This is an alias; the individual’s full name is known to the editorial staff.