[Squat!net]

In December 2024, a group of squatters decided to move into a vacant office building in the south east of Amsterdam. The owner, a real estate investment company related to infamous Blackstone, is not happy, faces them in court, and loses.
The former datacenter of Verizon had been empty for a little over a year.
Currently owned by a real estate investment company called Loonie Propco, more about them later. The building is situated in an area that is going to be redeveloped, ie, hipsterized, urbanized, gentrified. Of course we are not against building houses, we just have our doubts about the number of actual affordable houses. (1)
The plans are still in an early stage, so for the particular plot, it might take some years before they even start demolishing. But demolition is definitely what will happen.

The Subpoena

A few weeks after the squatters were there, and when the workers of the real estate company came back from their christmas holidays, a subpoena was sent to the squatters.
In short, the arguments of the owner were:
– The building is practically not suitable for living because there is no electricity.
– The building is legally not suitable for living because the zoning plan is office/industry.
– The squatters are creating an unsafe situation; they might set the building on fire because they are cold!
– The owner is committed to providing housing to the inhabitants of the city and contribute to ending the housing crisis! The squatters, however, are preventing these noble goals by living in the empty building.

About the owner

The company Loonie Propco is owned by Mariaan Kennedy (2), Hendrik de Wit (3) and Steven Charles Shadbolt (4). Some digging around in KVK and the internet revealed a connection with Blackstone. Blackstone is a big investment company that specializes in real estate, i.e., speculates and makes money of the basic need of people to have a house. Some time ago they were in the news because it was revealed they didn’t pay taxes for the huge amount of houses that they own in the Netherlands (5), which even led to parliamentary questions. (6) It is often said that squatters are parasites, trying to leech of society by living for free. These companies are the true parasites, making millions over the backs of all the people. Having a total disregard of basic human rights. (7)(8)

The court case

On the 18th of March, the squatters faced the owner in court. The case from the owner’s side was weak. They admitted the building was not going to be used anymore until the moment it was going to be demolished, estimated in 2027. No evidence of negotiations with the municipality was given, nor any permit requests.
As a reason why the building hadn’t been temporarily rented out (not that we would like to encourage anti-squat) the owner claimed that the costs of reconnecting the electricity were enormous (170.000 euros). The truth is, they probably just totally didn’t give a fuck and didn’t even really investigated the possibility.
There were some (fire)safety points, but the squatters had an independent inspection done that showed the judge that they indeed took safety seriously; we will share the exact points and steps taken with a local KSU in case someone wants to know more details. Another point was that the owner claimed they needed access to the building to do various studies before demolishing. The squatters had told the owner from the beginning that they were open to negotiations, but the owner refused to have contact.
In case the verdict does not appear on rechtspraak.nl, we will also share the full verdict with our local KSU`s for those interested.

Gnarly tricks

One week after the court case, the owner, probably realizing they might lose, made a nasty attempt of getting the squatters to leave. The lawyer of the owner sent a letter to the person that took the court case on their name and promised them they would do everything they could to make them financially responsible for all the damages that had been done to the building and all the damages that might happen in the future, with the grand finale of doing a claim of 12 million euros, in case the building burnt down.
The squatters are given 2 weeks to leave voluntarily. After a quick consult with the lawyer, the squatters realised this is nasty scaremongering. First of all, it is strange to claim damages before one can even assess whether there have been damages. Some examples from the owner of what the damages entail are screws in the walls for smoke detectors and other safety measures. Second of all, the building is going to be demolished, so it obviously would not matter if there are some minor damages on the paint of the walls.
Thirdly, suing someone for all damage that might hypothetically occur to a building at some point in the future of mankind doesn’t seem to make much sense.
The owner also managed to get one of the workers of the office building next door (that they also own) as their little private snitch investigator. They already came up with some random claims of groups of squatters having meetings in the cafeteria, emptying the fridges, and taking showers. Luckily, the judge did not even pay attention to these unfounded stories and ignored them.
As a great neighbor suits, our little snitchy friend is ready to jump on the phone as soon as they see something out of the ordinary. The other day, when the squatters were securing the entrance gate to the terrain, we caught him immediately calling the owner to tell them that we were destroying their property.
Funny detail: it was actually some workers from the office who came to fuck around with the barrier after having on of their friday drunk afternoons. Did the owner send them? We don’t know, but we wouldn’t be surprised.

The Verdict

Two weeks later, on the first of April, the squatters received the news they had won the case! The judge basically agreed with the squatters on every point, starting with the fact that an eviction is only justified when the owner can prove they have some immediate plans.
The owner could not back up any of their claims. so the judge dismissed them. For those interested in the complete verdict, go and visit KSU Oost in Joe’s Garage.

The Aftermath

As it is accustomed, the losing party of a civil court case has to pay the costs of the case. When the squatter’s lawyer, Juanita van Lunen, decided to ask for the money from Loonie Propco, she got a rather strange answer. They refused to pay because they are still planning to sue the squatters for the damages, are convinced they will win that case, and are sure the damages will be more than the court costs of the civil case. Our corporate overlords show once again that they don’t care about the law if it is them that have to obey it. They can expect a visit from a bailiff and eventually a seizure if they don’t pay.

The Second Subpoena

A couple of weeks after losing in the civil court case, the owner decided to keep on harassing. A couple of days ago the squatters received a subpoena for a “Bodemprocedure”. The owner is suing them for all the supposed damages that have been done to the building. The damages they mention are bizarre: a couple of screws in the wall and some minor safety improvements. The building is going to be demolished, so it will never be used again. They also want money for their legal costs. Legal costs that they decided to make themselves. They decided to sue the squatters and lost. Seems ridiculous to claim those costs from the squatters.