Rat endowment rent strike

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Rat endowment rent strike was a rent strike by tenants of nine residential blocks on the Lindeveld estate in Almere, Netherlands, from 1 June to 27 November 2038. The blocks had been bought in January 2036 by the Noorderhof Colony Endowment, a rat endowment whose colony of about 1,140 rats lived in roof voids, service ducts and ground-floor cavities. The tenants objected that they were paying rent to a fund whose beneficiaries already lived in their walls.

Tenants gather with escrow papers and a rent-strike sign outside a Dutch apartment block while a worker tends soft-coated rats in an illuminated service-wall habitat. — Illustration of the Lindeveld strike: tenants withheld rent while the colony continued receiving care inside the residential blocks.

Amounts were stated in nominal 2038 euros, following the post-ASDI rise in prices. The dispute centred on a €4,400 monthly habitat provision levy, which the trustees added to rent to pay for inverse pest control contracts. Those contracts maintain the colony while limiting its nuisance to neighbours. The strike ended on 27 November under a settlement that withdrew the levy.

Levy and records

On 3 May 2038 the trustees gave notice of a levy that would raise each flat’s monthly payment from €61,200 to €65,600.

The Lindeveld Tenants’ Committee, chaired by Renske Hoekstra, logged 4,300 rat incidents in the previous year. The contractor’s quarterly audits recorded 61 over the same period, counting only incidents reported on the endowment’s visitor card, which asks whether the visitor was approached.

Withholding and escrow

On 2 June the committee advised members to pay the full monthly sum into an escrow account. Many members’ defensive AI filtered the trustees’ letters into plain summaries. By 30 June, 171 of 184 households had stopped paying the estate office.

The bank accepted the account only under a title naming the money as held for colony beneficiaries, since the trust deed records any estate receipt as a colony receipt. Households paying into escrow fell from 171 in June to 104 in November, while the balance reached €55,038,400 at settlement.

Relocation and mediation

On 9 July the trustees proposed moving the colony in two runs by burrow ferry, large engineered tortoises with ventilated nesting galleries above their shells. Ferries 3 and 4 would carry about 570 rats per run to a converted pumping station, 11 km east at Hanzepolder. The costing omitted provision for rats left on the estate between runs. The walking nut trees, engineered orchard trees that move on muscular roots, were left out, the summary noting that they would remain rooted on the estate.

The trustees and the committee met four times between 14 June and 18 November, with a mediator, Tomas Brenk, appointed by agreement. The trustees’ counsel cited the Kessel bequest case of 2031, which concerned a donor’s transfer of assets after an unmediated visit to a colony. The committee’s counsel replied that it concerned a donor’s own gift, whereas these tenants were paying rent.

Settlement

On 27 November the trustees and the committee signed a settlement withdrawing the levy from 1 June. The estate received €35,000,000 from escrow for overdue repairs, and €20,038,400 went back to participating households. Each quarterly audit gained a committee-nominated observer, and the visitor card was replaced by a form that leaves out whether the visitor was approached. The burrow ferry proposal was withdrawn.