In addition to being a party leader in the VVD, Joost van der Steen is also the owner of eleven buildings in Bergen op Zoom, Breda and Tilburg, among others. He also owns houses outside our county: in Schiedam, Tullen and Utrecht. He himself lives in Sint-Michelgestel.

25,000 euros
One of his buildings is a house on the Orthenseweg in Den Bosch. In July 2022, the municipality threatened to fine the politician up to €25,000 for illegally renting a room at this address, according to a letter in the hands of Omrup Brabant.

It is not allowed to rent a single room at this address, and the house may only be rented to a single tenant or, for example, a family. Van der Sten said at the time that he did not know this: “I was very shocked by this letter and sorted it out immediately. The room has stopped renting. I am really disappointed,” he said.

Listed on Airbnb
The council thought that was the end of it. A spokesman for Omrup Brabant said, “We assumed the situation had been resolved. There had been previous contact with the offender and he had indicated he would terminate the illegal rent of the room.”

However, they were now going to take action against van der Steen again. He again illegally rents out rooms, and also puts the house up for rent. “The situation would have passed, but it turned out not to be the case. We will continue to implement because the property was also offered on Airbnb.”

police
Omroep Brabant spoke to several local residents who indicated that the police raided the premises at the end of last month. Both the police and the municipality cannot confirm this.

The VVD member himself is short and concise in his response to the current situation. “Unfortunately that is not true. I will not comment further on this,” he said, after questions from Omrup Brabant. He did not respond to follow-up questions about a possible police raid.

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