One of the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) social-housing properties which was severely damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017.PHILIPSBURG--A group of 64 tenants of St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) rental properties across St. Maarten are seeking permission from the Court of First Instance to withhold a maximum amount of 75 per cent of rent payments to their landlord to repair the hurricane damage to their dwellings.
In these summary proceedings, the tenants, follow in the footsteps of 18 tenants of 14 SMHDF rental properties in Belvedere who in September 2018 obtained permission from the Court of First Instance to use the maximum amount of 75 per cent of the arrears in rent or of current lease periods to repair the hurricane damage to their dwellings.
The Judge attached to this ruling the condition that tenants first pay 25 per cent of the arrears or 25 per cent of the current lease period to their landlord, within 14 days. SMHDF was ordered to allow the scheme, and had to pay the legal fees attached to the procedure.
Similar to the Belvedere tenants, the litigants in the injunction, which was heard by the Court on Friday, claim that their landlord had failed to repair their homes since the passing of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
Represented by attorney-at-law Azaria de Groot the tenants, some 20 of whom witnessed the proceedings from the public stands, claim that their homes are hardly suitable for habitation. The houses have holes in their roofs, windows and doors are broken, walls and ceilings are torn, doors are missing or are rickety, electrical wiring does not function properly, ceilings are partly missing, and so on.
As a result of these very serious defects, there is considerable water damage that continues to worsen when it rains, which creates mould formation.
“This means that in case of another hurricane my clients have nowhere to hide,” their lawyer stated. “When are they [SMHDF – Ed.] going to fix this?”
“Nothing was fixed nothing, nothing,” stated one of the tenants in the public stands, while the lawyer provided the Court with an overview of the damage and the homes’ state of disrepair.
“This case is urgent, as my clients live under horrible conditions,” De Groot stated in calling on the Judge to set a deadline for the Housing Foundation to fix the problems and reduce the rent.
SMHDF’s lawyer Caroline van Hees said the claims should be rejected. She said last year’s case, in which the Foundation has filed for appeal, is “deadlocked”, as the dwellings have not yet been repaired and the tenants do not give the foundation permission to enter their homes.
“SMHDF fears the same deadlock in this case. We want to arrive at a solution, but the damage and backlog in rent payments need to be established in each individual case. The Foundation fears increasing financial difficulties when the rent is to be reduced,” she explained to the Court.
SMHDF, which manages 747 social-housing units in St. Maarten, is contesting that all 64 homes are so severely damaged that this would justify a further reduction of the already reduced rent amount for social housing of approximately NAf. 840.
Lawyer van Hees claimed that SMHDF’s Technical Department is “constantly busy” with carrying out repairs, which, she said, is an “ongoing process.” She said that “much” had already happened and that contractors are busy with larger projects, such as roof repairs.
She said SMHDF has insufficient financial resources to repair all properties at the same time. The tenants who joined the injunction have a total backlog in rent payments of NAf. 44,000, she pointed out. Reducing the rent by 75 per cent would lead to a loss of NAf. 270,000, in six months’ time. “The foundation cannot bear this loss,” the lawyer claimed.
The Judge will give his decision August 16.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/89497-smhdf-tenants-want-to-withhold-rent-payments-to-fix-their-homes
