‘In winter, it’s easily below 10 degrees inside. When it gets that cold, I put on an extra jumper, or I turn the heating on for a while - but as soon as I turn it off again, all the heat disappears within half an hour.’

So says a 25-year-old law students who lives in a house by the Rhine with six housemates and wishes to remain anonymous ‘due to a disagreement with the landlord’.

‘I try to use the heating as little as possible as it’s extremely expensive nowadays. Ultimately, we pay for the energy costs ourselves: they’re settled with the service costs at the end of the year.’

The listed building in the centre of Leiden is very poorly insulated, he says. ‘The windows are single-glazed. There are holes in the walls, gaps under the doors and the floor is ice cold. One of the windows in my room is glued shut, and the other one doesn't close.’

MOULD

As a result, his fingers sometimes turn blue from the cold while studying. ‘And then I think: “Goddammit!”’ But things can get even worse. ‘In my housemate's room, the snow actually got in through the cracks. It didn’t even melt inside.’

Their requests to the landlord to take measures were to no avail. ‘He uses the listed status of this property as an excuse to put off insulation or not insulate at all.’

Lisa de Kok (19, philosophy), who lives in a house on Prins Hendrikstraat, is also at odds with her landlord because of the encroaching cold. ‘I used to have a broken single-glazed window; sometimes the rain would get in straight through it. My landlord didn’t actually want to do anything. He thought it was too expensive.’

It was only after a year of pushing and an intervention of Huurteam Leiden (see text box) that he took action. ‘When they saw how bad the conditions were, they called in the Rent Tribunal, which ultimately forced my landlord to take action. After a full year of hassling, he finally installed a new double-glazed window. That helps a bit, but it’s not nearly enough. It still gets icy cold in here.

‘In winter, I sleep with two blankets, pyjamas on and a hot water bottle because of the cold. There is a large gap under my door letting all the cold air in. In the kitchen, it gets so cold that the olive oil even solidified once (which only happens when it gets colder than 7 degrees, Ed.). It’s often the same temperature there as outside; sometimes it’s 5 degrees.’

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‘In winter, I sleep with two blankets, pyjamas on and a hot water bottle because of the cold. There is a large gap under my door letting all the cold air in. In the kitchen, it gets so cold that the olive oil even solidified once (which only happens when it gets colder than 7 degrees, Ed.). It’s often the same temperature there as outside; sometimes it’s 5 degrees.’

De Kok shows us the back door, which doesn’t close properly. ‘That door goes to my bathroom. You can feel the cold and the wind blowing in when you shower. On top of that, there is mould growing on the wall. The cold and mould growth are bad for my health. I’ve caught many colds since I moved in here.’

LISTED BUILDING

Ruert Hehenkamp (23, biology) and Stijn Hogesteeger (23, International Business) live in the Mummiezicht house, a Duwo building on Houtstraat facing the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities. They say they are also suffering unnecessary cold.

‘We asked Duwo if they would insulate our house, for example by installing double-glazed windows’, says Hehenkamp. ‘They refused this request because this house has a listed façade. But there are plenty of ways to insulate listed buildings. Moreover, they’re also deliberately failing to insulate the rest of the house, as only the front façade has listed status.’

He is puzzled about the fact that Duwo did replace all the bathrooms in the building recently. ‘They replaced all the showers, as they were completely covered in mould. We’d rather they just insulated the house, that also counteracts the mould. It’s funny that they spend heaps of money on new showers, but not on insulation.’

WALLET

Hogesteeger: ‘Sometimes when you’re downstairs in the corridor, it’s like you’re outside. It easily gets five degrees down there.’

Hehenkamp: ‘One of our housemates has a hole in the wall behind the radiator. So when she turns on the heating, all the heat immediately escapes. Another housemate's room became damp because of the poor insulation and ventilation. Because it can get just as cold in there as it gets outside, his blanket froze to the wall once.’

Hogesteeger: ‘Sometimes you have to turn on the heating, but that really hurts your wallet.’

For them, the energy costs are also settled with the service costs at the end of the year. And they have almost tripled lately, the students sigh. ‘They increased the service costs from 30 to 80 euros per person per month’, says Hehenkamp. ‘So heating costs an arm and a leg. I was ill the other day, which is all the more unpleasant because of the draughts and the cold. Even though I had a high fever, I had to wrap myself in layers of clothes every time I went to the toilet, because the corridor is ice cold. When I’m sick, I prefer to be at my parents’ place.’

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Because of the cold, the residents say they do not spend as much time in the common room as they would like. ‘It’s a nice room but the heating has been broken for more than three years. When we sit there in winter we have to wear coats and put blankets over us. What’s strange is that Duwo did paint the radiators during this period, but didn’t fix them. That’s no way to maintain a building.’

Lauens Cramer, branch director of Duwo Leiden, says he was not aware of the situation on Houtstraat. He argues that Duwo is doing its utmost to fulfil its duties as a lessor.

VENTILATION AND HEATING

‘If there’s a technical defect in one of our houses that causes cold or mould, for example, that is of course something we have to fix. However, such problems are sometimes also caused by improper care on the part of residents. For example, they have to make sure to ventilate daily and to heat the house fairly consistently.’

Cramer also claims that Duwo properties are ‘better maintained than student houses owned by private individuals’. Many newly built houses are ‘already very sustainable’ and, on top of that, old buildings in the city centre are also being upgraded. Because these are often listed buildings, it’s a more complicated process, of course. These are huge operations, which is why it takes a long time. Therefore, some houses may have to wait a little longer.’

According to Cramer, Duwo focuses on completely insulating their properties in one go. ‘We go all-out. Because if you install double glazing, for example, but don’t provide new ventilation, you will have to go back again after a while. That’s why we choose to fully renovate our properties in one fell swoop. That means a single project can take a year to a year and a half to complete.’

In addition, Duwo will ‘start working on occupied properties that can be made considerably more sustainable by making minor adjustments’, Cramer continues. ‘Moreover, we’re also working on the Climate Route project, which involves taking small measures in buildings based on the right information about energy saving.’

‘In the four years that I’ve lived here, I haven't had the impression that Duwo is in fact doing its utmost to fulfil its duties as a lessor’, Hogesteeger responds. ‘Heating our house consistently is not just very difficult with all the heat loss due to poor insulation, it's also extremely expensive. And like we said, the heating in the common room has been broken for years. If Duwo started communicating more clearly and keeping its promises from now on, I think that would reduce a lot of frustration on both sides.’