Does the law help to tackle dilapidated buildings, slum landlords and hoarders?

If you look around, you will recognise them: homes, buildings or plots of land that are in poor condition. They are badly maintained, do not meet fire safety requirements, are overflowing with accumulated rubbish, are crammed with migrant workers or are being used to grow cannabis.

Are local authorities able to tackle these abuses effectively? Caroline Huls, Els Schipaanboord, Stefan van Tongeren and Michel Vols from the General Legal Studies section of the Faculty of Law are investigating this on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning.

Michel Vols: ‘We conducted a similar study in 2017. Since then, the Environment Act has been introduced in 2024 and the Good Landlord Act has come into force. This is a good reason to examine whether the law is effective enough to combat these kinds of practices.’

Groningen approach

The introduction of the Good Landlord Act is partly the result of the 2017 study of the Housing Act. Vols: ‘At the time, the municipality of Groningen said that there were no slum landlords in the city. We had a good discussion about this. Groningen then set to work and is now leading the way nationally in tackling slum landlords. The experiences in Groningen have been used at national level.’

Over the next six months, the researchers will map out the abuses municipalities are confronted with, the measures they are taking on the basis of the Environment Act and the Housing Act, the sanctions they are imposing and the bottlenecks they are encountering. They will also look at the role of the Public Prosecution Service (OM).

Malicious slumlords

Vols: “In our previous research, we noticed that when a local authority put pressure on malicious slumlords, they packed their bags and continued their practices in another local authority. The Public Prosecution Service can tackle such slumlords nationwide. We want to know whether that is currently happening.”

For the study, a questionnaire will be sent to all municipalities and the researchers will look at case law from recent years: how many fines have been imposed? Have people been evicted from their homes? Have properties been expropriated?

They are also examining the policies of the 45 largest municipalities and conducting interviews. Vols: “Among other things, we want to talk to the hoarding team of the municipality of Rotterdam. In that municipality alone, there are 500 cases per year involving contaminated homes.”

The results of the study should be known in April 2026.