Oss inhabitant may keep his caravan-pitch, setting aside the ‘extinction policy’ of the municipality

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‘s-HERTOGENBOSCH. On January 14th 2016 the lower court of East-Brabant decided in favour of a traveller from Oss who wanted to continue renting the caravan pitch of his deceased mother. With this decision, the court set aside the policy of the municipality of Oss which aims to extinguish mobile sites. This is a case of the Public Interest Litigation Project (PILP), a two-year pilot by the Dutch Section of the International Commission of Jurists (NJCM). The plaintiff was represented by the lawyers of Kennedy van der Laan on a pro bono basis.

The Oss municipality intended to evict the plaintiff from the caravan and to permanently remove the caravan from the site, based on its so-called ‘extinction policy of mobile sites’. The municipality did not consider the fact that the man maintained a joint household with his mother or that he was the new owner of the caravan. The municipality also failed to take into account his cultural rights as a traveller. However, the judge found it proven that in this case there was in fact a sustainable joint household and therefor assigned the claim in favour of the plaintiff entailing the maintenance of the rental agreement.

PILP’s coordinator, Jelle Klaas, is satisfied with the decision of the court that ensures the right of the plaintiff. ‘Once again it is made clear, for both caravan occupants and municipalities, that the extinction policy cannot be executed in this way.’ At the same time he deplores that the court has not mentioned anything about the raised arguments on human rights violations, ‘while they seem to have had impact’, says Jelle Klaas.

Because of its human rights aspects, the case has been taken on by the PILP. In a letter to the court, the PILP explained why the culture and the identity of the travellers, must always be taken into great consideration when making caravan related policy and in the enforcement of that policy. Not only the right of the plaintiff to rent, but also human rights are at stake here. There is the right to respect of one’s home, private- and family life (Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights), the prohibition of discrimination (Article 14 ECHR) and the right to protection of property (Article 1 Protocol I to ECHR). The PILP has also emphasized the findings of the Netherland Institute for Human Rights that qualified the extinction policy of Oss as discriminating.

Extinction policy

Since the abolition of the law on caravans in 1999 (Woonwagenwet 1999) there has no longer been any national policy on caravans. In the directory of the former Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, five options for policy were provided to municipalities concerning the regulation of caravan-pitches. The first scenario is the zero-option policy, that aims to extinguish caravan sites. Municipalities can achieve this by eliminating detached pitches or by offering occupants alternative housing.

 

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