Woonhaven temporarily closes tenant offices after customer employee physical attack (Antwerp)
Social housing company Woonhaven closes all tenant offices in Antwerp until 8 January 2023 after an extreme case of aggression. A dissatisfied customer physically assaulted a Woonhaven employee. The man was evicted, Woonhaven has terminated the man’s lease.
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The incident dates back to Wednesday, December 7. “One of our colleagues was physically assaulted at work. A customer who came to consultation hours was probably dissatisfied while stopping,” says Jan Hendrickx of Woonhaven. “The man started throwing chairs and computers at the employee.”
The woman was able to get herself to safety, her colleagues were able to evict the man from the office. “The police arrived on the spot and drew up an official report,” said Hendrickx. “We filed a thorough complaint against the man and subsequently terminated the man’s lease as well.”
After the incident, Woonhaven has decided to temporarily close all tenant offices, at least until January 8, 2023. Woonhaven will still say that this is an exceptional case and has never happened before. “We want to give the signal that we do not accept any form of aggression against our employees and will review the weeks internally, and if so, what additional measures we are taking to guarantee the safety of staff and visitors.”