Illustratie: Henk van Ruitenbeek Hesitating before making a decision, I called home to discuss it together.
‘Honey, I’m in an apartment that I’ve found for us.’ ‘Really? That’s great! What does it look like?’ ‘Well, it’s a one-floor apartment on the ground floor. It’s charming, has a small garden, some furniture, large windows. Lots of light inside. The neighbourhood seems to be nice. But it doesn’t have a floor.’ ‘Doesn’t have a floor?! So what are you standing on?’ ‘Well, on the floor, but… there is nothing on it. No carpet, floorboards or laminate.’
You can rent a house in the Netherlands with an oven, fridge, dishwasher… but no flooring
Apparently, an apartment or a house in the Netherlands can be offered for rent with an oven, stove, fridge, dishwasher, some cupboards, but… no flooring. I find it weird – and inefficient, and unsustainable – that tenants who are not lucky enough to meet the previous tenants and take over their flooring, often have to put new flooring in a rented property. When they leave, they must – yes must – remove the flooring. As if the chances that the next tenants would also need flooring were very low. So far I haven’t met any Dutch person who could explain this strange phenomenon. Maybe I will solve the riddle by the time I graduate.
Efrat Gommeh, a PhD candidate in the Public Administration and Policy group, from Israel
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NL: ‘Geen vloer?!’
Promovendus Efrat Gommeh had een appartement in Wageningen gevonden voor zijn gezin en belde naar Israël voor overleg. Hij vertelde dat het in een leuke buurt stond, grote ramen en een tuintje had. ‘Alleen heeft het geen vloer.’ ‘Geen vloer?! Waar sta je dan op?’ ‘Nou, op de vloer, maar er ligt niets óp.’ Verbijsterend vindt Efrat het dat huurders in Nederland bij vertrek hun vloerbedekking moeten verwijderen. ‘Alsof de kans klein is dat de volgende huurder ook vloerbedekking nodig heeft.’