‘If anyone is caught stealing food or is found to have caused any damage, they will be expelled immediately’, says student manager Johanna Igges. ‘If anyone breaks any rules from now on – whether it be noise, mess… anything – or makes one wrong move, they’re gone.’

Resident Daniel Petrovics, who has had an entire Espresso machine stolen, said: ‘I wrote to the Housing Office, but they just forwarded the letter to Johanna, so nothing could really be done. I was hoping that they’d install cameras or something like that. I only left it for a while to cool down!’

Igges contacted a lawyer on the issue and advised residents ‘to put labels on food saying that it contains medicine’. ‘You could say any kind of medicine, for example laxative. But do not literally put laxative in food without a note, as you could be sued for that in a common kitchen!’

Complaints

Also, noise complaints frequently plague Winscho. However, Housing Office co-ordinator Jeroen Boonstra claims that Winscho is no exception. ‘Where people live together, once in a while incidents may occur. Luckily, the Housing Office doesn’t have to deal frequently with complaints and issues about noise, theft and damage in its international houses.’

Immediately following the damages to Winscho on Queen’s Day, student managers also indicated that new rules would be implemented regarding visitors. Not only would the number of visitors be reduced, but the number and size of parties would be limited, too.

However, after some consideration, Boonstra abandoned this latter plan. ‘Additional rules and regulations are not necessary, because this was a one-off incident’, he says.