Housing for expats in Belgium

The Belgian Rental Market

Finding suitable accommodation can be a problem in some parts of Belgium, depending on your requirements and your financial resources.

There is a relatively free and open housing market in much of Belgium. Housing is available in most of Belgium, although the constant flow of bureaucrats and diplomats to and from Brussels makes the rental market tight in and around the capital.

Rental housing in Belgium is plentiful and generally easy to find, thanks to rather generous (for Belgium) treatment of rental income. Despite recent changes to this popular tax loophole, rental property is still considered a good way for retirees to supplement their pension income. In larger cities such as Brussels, there’s a constant changeover of diplomatic and corporate personnel, so that apartments and houses become available at all times of the year. You’ll see plenty of window signs with big orange letters on a black background proclaiming ‘à louer/te huur’ and the phone number you can call for further information. It’s sometimes possible to arrange an immediate appointment to see a property if you’re touring an area with your mobile phone in hand, and ‘sign hunting’ is a popular means of finding living quarters in a specific neighbourhood.

Most apartments and houses are rented unfurnished, although the kitchen (cuisine/keuken) can vary as to how well equipped (equipée/uitgerust) it is. A semi-equipped kitchen probably has a sink and some built-in cupboards, but not much more. You’ll be expected to provide your own appliances or make arrangements with the prior tenant to buy theirs. ‘Equipped’ means that the basic appliances are included (cooker and probably a refrigerator, but not always), and ‘super-equipped’ indicates that the kitchen may have a dishwasher, microwave and/or other ‘luxury’ appliances, as well as all the basics. If the kitchen isn’t equipped, you’ll have to provide all your own cupboards and appliances.

Finding Accommodation

There are a number of ways to find a property to rent, including the following:

* Ask friends, relatives and acquaintances to look out for suitable accommodation, particularly if you’re looking in the area where you already live. A lot of rental properties are found by word of mouth, particularly in cities with large expatriate or transient populations (e.g. Brussels).

* Look at advertisements in local newspapers (including free ones) and magazines.

* Visit accommodation and letting agents. Most cities and large towns have estate agents (agences immobilières/makelaars in onroerende goederen or simply makelaars) who also act as letting agents for owners. It’s often better to deal with an agent than directly with owners, particularly regarding contracts and legal matters.

* Look at advertisements in shop windows and on notice boards in shopping centres, supermarkets, universities and colleges and company offices.

* Walk through neighbourhoods you think you might like to live in and look for ‘to let’ signs (à louer/te huur) on suitable properties.

* Read newsletters published by churches, clubs and expatriate organisations or ask at international schools or other places where expats and their families congregate.

Most rental properties in Belgium are let unfurnished, which means that you must provide most fittings and fixtures, including ceiling lamps, kitchen cupboards, appliances and often floor coverings. Furnished properties (meublé/gemeubeld) are rare and often difficult to find except for short-term stays, generally less than a year.

Rental Agencies and Estate Agents

If you need or want help in finding a place to live, you should know that there are two distinct kinds of agencies that handle housing rentals in Belgium.

The first is a rental agency, which charges you a fee to find properties meeting your specific requirements (i.e. essentially doing your ‘sign hunting’ for you). There’s no central rental listing service in Belgium, so rental agents generally scour newspapers and other listings, then match up what they’ve found with the preferences of their clients.

If you’re registered with a rental agency, you’ll receive a list of addresses and phone numbers so that you can set up your own appointments to see the units. When you find a suitable place, you’re on your own as far as negotiating a lease is concerned. The rental agency fee may entitle you to a certain number of referrals or to unlimited referrals over a set period of time, usually around six months. A few agencies will continue to provide you with listings until you’ve signed a lease.

The second sort of agency is an estate agent (agence immobilière/woningkantoor), who will charge the property owner a commission on the rental of an apartment and, in some cases, may perform some or all of the property management duties for the owner. If you’re dealing with an estate agent, you shouldn’t have to pay any fee. The estate agent will contact the owner and set up appointments for you to see the property and many will actually drive you to the appointment (saving you a considerable amount of money in taxi fares).

You can also expect an estate agent to help by providing detailed information about a property and negotiating a lease or explaining standard lease terms and clauses. Owners often list their vacant properties with several estate agents and pay the fee only to the one who arranges the lease. As a potential tenant, you may (and probably should) contact as many estate agents as you can. Be careful, however, to keep track of which properties you’ve already seen. If a second agent shows you a property you’re thinking of renting, you could be setting the landlord up for a fee argument, in which case he may simply refuse to rent you the property at all!

Leases

Once you’ve found a house or apartment to rent, you’ll have to negotiate and finalise a lease, or rental contract. You should read the lease carefully before signing it and, if you have doubts or questions about any of the terms, have them translated or explained to you.

A lease will identify the property you’re renting, including both the street address and the apartment (either by number or location). If there are additional rooms or privileges included in the basic rental, such as access to a laundry room, garage, parking space or storage facilities, these should be noted in the lease. If you’re renting a semi-furnished or partially equipped unit, this should also be noted, along with an indication of what equipment or fittings are included.

A lease will indicate the amount of your monthly rent, the date it is to be paid and possibly the method of payment (many landlords require you to set up a standing order with your bank), plus any penalties for late payment. It should also include details of annual rent increases, which are usually indexed, as well as the procedure for increasing the rent above this amount. In addition to your rent, you’ll be required to pay an estimated monthly amount for.

Your lease should also include the amount and conditions of the damage deposit. When you move out, you’ll be expected to return the house or apartment to the condition it was in when you took over; if you fail to do so, the landlord can use your deposit to cover the cost of making any necessary repairs. The deposit will usually be held until the last common charges have been determined and settled, so it can be a year or more after you leave before you receive your deposit refund!

Most landlords require a deposit of one to three months’ rent. If possible, you should arrange to have this money held in an interest-bearing account, usually a blocked account that requires authorisation from both you and the landlord before the funds can be released. Some landlords will accept a bank guarantee for the amount of the deposit. You can arrange this through your bank, usually for a small annual fee. Beware of landlords who attempt to include a clause requiring you to return the property to ‘perfect’ condition rather than to the condition in which you received it. If you agree to such a clause, you could be faced with major renovation costs to cover previous tenants’ wear and tear as well as your own.

Other terms and conditions that may appear in the lease include notice periods and penalties for breaking the lease. Tenants’ rights are extremely well protected under most standard leases in Belgium. Evicting a tenant, even one who has caused considerable problems, is a process that can take months or even years, and the circumstances under which a landlord may evict a tenant are severely limited. In most cases, he must give a long notice period and pay you substantial penalties (which doesn’t mean you should make a habit of getting yourself evicted from rented accommodation!). For this reason, most landlords insist on verifying your employment, residence and income details before accepting you as a tenant. If you want to terminate the lease, there are standard notice periods and procedures to follow, and sometimes penalties to be paid. It has become common practice to include a so-called ‘diplomatic clause’ in the standard lease form. This permits you to terminate your lease at 30 days’ notice if you have to move owing to your employment, i.e. you’re transferred at short notice or you change jobs.

A standard lease in Belgium runs for a period of nine years and is often referred to as a 3-6-9 lease. This is because the base rent can be increased only at the beginning of each 3-year period, and then only if written notice has been given. Under the standard lease, you must give at least three months’ notice in writing in order to break or terminate the lease (usually six or nine months’ notice is required). If you break the lease within the first year, you must pay a penalty of three months’ rent. During the second year, the penalty is reduced to two months’ rent, and during the third year to one month’s rent. After the third year, there’s no penalty provided you’ve given adequate notice. After each three-year period, the landlord may eject you if he needs the property for his own or a close family member’s use, but he must give six months’ notice and pay you a large penalty (equal to nine months’ rent after three years and six months rent after six years). If the landlord fails to give proper notice, he must pay you 18 months’ rent as a penalty. At the end of the nine-year lease period, the lease is automatically renewed for another nine years unless you or the landlord has given notice of an intention not to renew at least six months’ in advance by registered letter.

It’s always wise to include a diplomatic clause in a rental contract but, unless you’re on amicable terms with your landlord, you may find that the Belgian courts won’t enforce it. Instead, you can often persuade your employer to reimburse you for any rental penalties incurred as a result of a forced relocation.

While you can negotiate some changes to the standard contract, you may find that the Belgian courts are unwilling to enforce unusual provisions or non-standard lease clauses if a disagreement with your landlord results in legal action. Open-ended or indefinite term leases aren’t permitted under Belgian law and, if you insist on negotiating a non-standard term lease, you run the risk of losing most of the legal protection that tenants enjoy in Belgium.

Leases in Belgium must be registered with the local office of the Receiver of Registrations, Ministry of Finance (Enregistrement/Registratie, Ministère des Finances/Ministerie van Financien) within four months of being signed. Technically, you can be fined for forgetting this formality, although it’s in your own interest to remember to register the lease and any changes or codicils made during the term of the lease. Don’t take any notice if your landlord attempts to discourage you from ‘bothering’ with the registration process: if the landlord wants to re-let the property, the new tenant can only be held to the terms of the existing lease if these have been properly registered; if you haven’t registered your lease, the new tenant is free to evict you, raise your rent or change any of the other terms of your rental contract!

In Belgium, you must usually pay a deposit equal to three months’ rent, either in cash or by obtaining a bank guarantee for the amount, and an inventory is generally done before the lease is signed and deposits paid. The Belgian Consumers Association publishes a booklet entitled Guide de la Location/Huren en Verhuren, which explains standard lease terms and clauses you should look out for. Contact Test Achats/Test Aankoop, rue de Hollande 13, 1060 Brussels (Tel. +32 (0)2-536 6411).

Other Things to Consider

Common Charges
Common charges are the monthly fees you pay for the services you share with your neighbours in the same building (or sometimes within the same complex or housing estate).

Each month, you’re required to pay an estimated amount towards the maintenance and repair of common areas (e.g. hallways, lobby, grounds, lifts), the cost of the concierge or building manager, water supplies and sewerage and other shared utilities, including heating and hot water if these are provided on a communal basis. At the end of the year, the actual cost of these services is assessed and each tenant is charged a share, based on the size of his apartment or other criteria stipulated in the lease. If you’ve paid too much, you’ll receive a credit on your following month’s rent payment; if you’ve underpaid, you’ll be asked to make up the difference. Your estimated monthly payment is then adjusted for the following year.

Common charges typically add 10 to 20 per cent to the base rent, depending on what is covered and how the allocation is determined. When you move out of your apartment, it’s customary for the landlord to retain your damage deposit until the last of the common charges have been settled, which can take a year or more. Note that in Belgium there are no tenants’ or owners’ associations to which you can belong in order to have a say in how much you’re charged.

House Rules
Most apartment blocks have house rules, some of which may be formulated by the local commune and be enforceable by law. You should receive a copy of the house rules on moving into an apartment or when you sign a rental or sales contract, but it’s wise to review them before you agree to rent or buy a home, as they can affect your use and enjoyment of the common facilities (sometimes they will even restrict the colour of the curtains you can hang in your windows!). If you don’t understand the rules, have them translated; ignorance is no excuse for breaking house rules.

Common house rules include restrictions on the use of hallways for storing bicycles or children’s toys; noise (particularly late at night), including the flushing of toilets or running of showers after 10pm; use of lifts by unaccompanied children or for moving furniture or other large items; use of the balconies or visible terraces for hanging laundry or mounting satellite dishes; and parking by residents and guests. Rules may also cover the rotation of cleaning duties for hallways or common areas where there’s no concierge or maintenance staff, responsibility for locking communal entrances at night and the collection of rubbish.

Inventory
One of the most important tasks on moving into a new apartment or home is to complete an inventory and condition report (état des lieux/staat van de huis). This includes the state of the fixtures and fittings (if there are any), the cleanliness and condition of the decoration and any items missing or in need of repair. The procedure varies, but in general all problems and damages are listed on a form which is signed by both the tenant and the landlord, or the vendor and the buyer in the case of a sale. Most leases require the tenant to restore the property to ‘move-in’ condition, and it’s the inventory report which establishes what that condition was. Any damages that aren’t noted on the inventory list when you move in will be charged to you when you move out, so you should make sure that you check a property thoroughly and that the inventory list is complete before you sign it.

Once you’ve moved in, it can be difficult (or impossible) to persuade the owner to repair anything, as you’ll be responsible for all interior maintenance and decoration. If you’re buying a house or apartment, the inventory should itemise any unfinished work or repairs that the vendor has agreed to remedy. If possible, this list, along with deadlines for completing the work, should be submitted to the notary prior to the transfer of the property so that it becomes part of the sales contract.

In Belgium, an inventory is normally carried out by a surveyor (géomètre/landmeter), who is usually paid by the property owner. However, it’s wise to hire your own surveyor if you have any reason to doubt the competence or objectivity of the person your landlord or vendor has engaged. The surveyor is supposed to examine the empty property in minute detail, noting all imperfections and damage, from heel marks or scratches on the floor to broken or malfunctioning windows, doors or plumbing. You can (and should) be present during the inventory to make sure that everything is properly noted. Surveyors’ fees amount to between

If you’re purchasing any fittings or appliances from the previous tenants, be sure to obtain a receipt so that the landlord can’t claim them as part of his property, either during the inventory or when you move out. If you’ve bought fittings or appliances as part of a sale, make sure that they’re included in the inventory and correspond with what you thought you were buying.

source: http://www.alloexpat.com