9 reactions to this article

IRMA BRINGAS-CLAEYS posted: 2010-12-25 04:26:34

Here's my point of view regarding renting in West Flanders, as I understood from some of the advice from your section "Ask Our Experts" I realize that not all rental laws apply all over Belgium. I have lived in Wallonia, Brussels and now Flanders and after becoming a widow it has been a daunting experience since I had no other choice but to move out from the rental house I shared with my husband and daughter. Since being a single parent, I experienced a denial for renting to single mothers, for which I was completely astonished; I receive my widows pension for which represents a soluble income. As my situation changed dramatically from one day to next after loosing my partner, I was obliged to find more suitable rental home within my means, after a long search and many filed applications to rent without results, I found a house. My contract was made through the Immo agency representing the owner who lives outside Belgium. The agency has never provided me with the Owner's contact information, also there wasn't and inspection done when I moved in, even though I requested there should be one, yet I took note and photos of everything, the condition of the house was fair, that was my mistake, I trusted that the house was in fair condition and that I could manage with some imperfections, especially when I had seen a lot of rental properties that left me wondering how they could be on the market for rent in their present condition. Little did I know, the water heater was never inspected, they have no records of when it was serviced, the windows are in bad state, by this I mean the wood frames and window's glass are in great need of repair or replacement; my electricity and gas bill was exuberant to say the least in the first year, as the house is not insulated at all, I had the electrical company come by to do an assessment of why the consumption was so high, when I use all savings lamps and I am considerably more aware of not abusing the electricity and gas,they informed me that the walls were not insulated at all, the single glass windows are a considerable factor for the heating consumption. As I am not completely challenged when it comes to repairing things around the house, I started to insulate the windows and doors and every nook and cranny; My worries started when the winter months and the heating the house to keep fairly warm has become my nightmare as the water heater keeps failing and have been without heating for 4 days in a very cold and damp house and every time I call the Immo, they fail to take action, I decided to call the person whom they say did the "Heating Installation" to come and fix the problem, when I ask him when he did the last service on the heater, his reply was" I have never done any service on this heater before", so I asked him if he could do the service on my bill, he said " Well, I would have to take it all apart", my gosh, why does it have to be so difficult!!; I have done all requests of needed repairs in writing and still nothing is done, this response has left me to believe, that for the first time in my life, I am a foreigner and as such "have no rights to fight back", even though I've lived in other countries before. As well, they never respond back until I have called many times after to confirm they have received my written request for repairs. This has been utterly frustrating as I have never encounter such incompetence in service; I posses no knowledge of what my full rights are as a tenant or where I can complain about the situation. As a parent, I feel I have failed my daughter for not providing her with better living conditions. In the past, my husband took care of all contracts and knew well how contract agreements and what his rights were in this matter. I started this contract on one year basis, now they informed me that automatically has become a 3yr contract and my surprise was that I did not need to sign a new contract agreement for these 3yrs; for which I find suspicious, and of course, moving out is financially difficult at the moment. I am not totally displeased with the house, but the approach of business and service from this Immo has left me with a bad taste all around. I don't know how common it is to rent a property where the owner is not directly in contact with the tenant even when living outside of Belgium and not being aware of the service provided by the Immo in his/her name. This experience has taught me a big lesson, I will certainly be better informed in the future, but the situation regarding Renters and immobilieres, you just have to be lucky to find a decent one!!!

Renting in Belgium is Awful posted: 2011-10-03 20:06:55

Everything that Irma states here is true. [Edited by moderator] You can show up to a home and if you say that you have a service dog, they say no pets and rent to someone else (despite my paperwork proving that he was professionally trained and is a medical necessity). If you are not a childless, wanting to remain childless, older married couple (ie: young w/ the possibility of children in the future, gay/lesbian, young student with the potential to party and destroy the place), they have a waiting list of a dozen people to choose from and you won't get the apartment if you aren't an "ideal renter". Further, the housing conditions here are horrid. Many homes are heated with a gas called "mazout". Right now, mazout goes for .85 per liter. Most companies will not deliver less than 500 L and we even had a landlord have our mazout delivered (without our authorization!) for 500L more than we said we could afford to pay. Also, because the insulation was so poor in the house, the 1000 L of mazout (nearly 800 euros a year ago), was gone in 3 weeks. So, we had to live without heating during a freezing, snowy winter. It is, indeed, true that you have to get lucky to rent a decent place here. We have found that even the awful houses with single paned glass for 400 euros a month are difficult to rent. Again, if you aren't the "ideal" renter, forget it. You'll struggle here even if you can pay the rent in advance for a year (I've been willing to show proof of income, not just proof of employment, and it didn't make a difference). Further, beware of what you sign. 3-6-9 year contracts are still considered the norm here. This seems horribly risky for both the tenant and the landlord, but it really isn't risky for the landlord at all. They know that most people will not stay for the duration of the 3-9 years, meaning they take 2-3 months of your deposit knowing that you will probably never get it back. To protect yourself: 1. Never pay the deposit in cash. Always go to the bank and have it designated as rent at your address with all parties involved signing for it. 2. Sometimes you have to pay for the inspection of the home before you rent it. It's worth it - we had a landlord try to sue us for tearing his home apart when we actually rebuilt the cabinets in the kitchen and repainted the bathroom from a horrible puke green to a light neutral beige. 3. SUBLETING IS NOT LEGAL IN BELGIUM. If the actual landlord is not involved personally in the transaction, do not assume he/she has given permission to transfer the contract. Many people find themselves in a house that is not livable and will try to sublet to an unsuspecting victim, even subleting for an amount less than the rent, willing to pay the difference to get out of their contract. 4. If you can live anywhere besides Belgium, DO. [Edited]. I only stay here for my partner, but we plan to return to the States. Family is no longer incentive enough to stay; it's that bad. For frame of reference: I lived in a luxury high-rise in Atlanta and had appeared many times on television for my vocation. This country has a mindset of taking advantage of others and if you aren't employed with NATO, the UN or some other organization like that, good luck. I have never lived so poorly as I have lived in this country.

A disappointed tenant posted: 2011-11-05 17:25:40

The two previous comments couldn't be more true. I had very similar experiences. Belgium is possibly the worst country to rent an apartment or a house (seriously), it has given me nightmares. The worst part is feeling so helpless in front of the whole system.

Indy posted: 2011-12-05 00:06:22

I agree. Belgium is possibly the worst place to rent. And I have lived in 16 countries. I thought France was but this takes the price.

I just got ripped off for 1800 EUR. The expert who came to the house was the first thing I was surprised about. I have never seen one anywhere. Didn't know that this job even existed. But now, being ripped off, I see why. A bit too late unfortunately.

My only advice is. Don't trust anyone. My landlords were very nice and I ignored all the advices. And surely I paid the price for it. Be extremely through with the flat when you move in and have it signed and agreed with the paper exactly everything on the current condition of the flat. Even if it's annoys yourself. It's not nice but there is no other way as far I can see. Even if you see a silly tiny mark on the wall. Have it agreed on these "bad" conditions. They pinned me down for this hand the whole wall had to be repainted, they said. As previous comments, you just feel helpless and don't know what to do.

It astonishes me that amount of stories you keep hearing and it never ends. And it seems to being going on since forever. It's like a bad 80's song that keep repeating itself forever. Surely someone out there must be able to stop this horrible song. All you need is to find is the person who can press the stop button. But I see little hope because the law is on the landlord side. Nowhere else in the world I have seen that.

Now I'm in a shared flat without contract. Next time I'll ask the moving in/out procedures before taking anything. Even is the flats is adorable.

IRMA BRINGAS-CLAEYS posted: 2011-12-17 13:35:29

TO SEE THAT I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS BEEN IN THE FRUSTRATING SITUATION OF RENTING IN BELGIUM "A BAD EXPERIENCE" TO SAY THE LEAST. MAKES YOU WONDER IF THE LAWS WILL EVER COME TO BE FAIR AND JUST FOR THE TENANT AS WELL. I DO SYMPATHIZE WITH ALL THOSE WHO HAVE HAD AN "AN EYE OPENING EXPERIENCE" ON RENTAL CONTRACTS AND DEALINGS WITH LAND LORDS. I AM HOPEFUL AND MAYBE TOO MUCH WISHFUL THINKING THAT PERHAPS BELGIUM WILL RECOGNIZE THAT IT IS A COUNTRY WHICH CAN OFFER A GREAT DEAL TO EXPATS SUCH AS MYSELF AND MANY OTHERS WHO COME FROM MANY OTHER DEVELOP COUNTRIES, WHERE SUCH INCOMPREHENSIVE SITUATIONS LIKE THIS MAY NOT BE THE NORM AND WHERE YOU HAVE MORE PRODUCTIVE OUTCOME AND PUT YOUR TIME AND ENERGY WHERE ITS NEEDED. BEST OF LUCK!!!

Edouard posted: 2012-02-18 11:31:41

I'm Belgian-American and fully agree with all the comments above, I've been trying to rent for the last six months with my wife and 14 year old son and with no luck. I have a low paying job , (little bit more than the minimum} .But because I don't have a lawful address I can't register my wife and son,so that puts them in a legal limbo. I speak Flemish albeit not that great and at my first job the guy said you can go home you don,t speak the language. My father was the chief station engineer for SABENA in Brussels ,NYC and the Congo and spoke many different languages but if he could see how his country evolved into a 1984 orwellian nightmare 40 years ago he would turn over in his grave, it was a more relaxed country but the Belgians have always been somewhat complicated. I think the solution is to train or educate the personnel in town halls, government offices etc to be more customer oriented and what can I say.

Sue posted: 2012-12-30 23:50:55

I'm lucky and pleased to say that my experiences of renting here in Belgium (Brugge) - whilst not being perfect have been no worse than elsewhere. Biggest problem being the landlord wanting to hold on to as much of the security deposit as he can - I've certainly encountered that elsewhere too. [Edited by moderator]

Kate posted: 2013-02-10 16:16:44

My experience triggered a total halt to my enlightened view of living in Brussels. Three years ago we decided that the best place for medical studies for our school leaving daughter was Brussels and that was the beginning of the great adventure. We were in a hurry to get a decent flat in a safer district because we both had to get back to work. Got the flat quickly from a sound friendly agency, the first year was actually fun for us so we overlooked the old cranky boiler and spent a load of money on gas for tepid water and wasteful heating because most of the money went into drying the water logged walls of the basement flat. All of a sudden we found ourselves floating on a lake of water because of a burst pipe but the cause, I may add, was only discovered after a month - January in the freezing cold still paying steep heating bills, people for dinner rather embarassed about the wet sheets on the floor etc..... but we were quite happy. We then discovered that the smart middle-aged widow who owned the whole house and lived in the top floor flat was an alcholic with night time delusions needing assistance from my daughter and other details. Last October she opened the front door of the flat with her keys and strode into the sitting room at 9 am with a man whilst I was still asleep on the sofa bed. Mostly surprised but rather embarassed I asked her to leave the room. That was when I decided the change and started a real search for another place in the same district. That evening I had a phone number for a much better flat quite nearby. We paid an extra month's rent and moved out. She had a very sour look on her face. On the day of the etat de lieu she appeared with another horrible man who ripped money off us because he charged 160,00 for cleaning (the flat had been thoroughly cleaned) and more money for damage on a kitchen panel which was there when we moved in, amounting to 400,00 detracted from the deposit money. After three days of total fury and disappointment (she had been so nice but on second thoughts very attached to money), we decided to lump it. Tomorrow I'll go to the Renter's Syndicate and I'll probably write out a complaint to the European Dept for Foreigners, but that's the way it is: very nice to you when they're selling, not so obsessively correct and nice when they have to let go, very attached to money and I'm talking cents here. I have no advice to give, maybe the trick is to sound very assertive and money concious at the start. I'd like to add that the Dept for Foreign Relations in Brussels should be flooded with detailed written complaints on tricky renting and money robbing, such a different picture from the gigantic coloured lighted posters at Brussels International Airport which reassure you on arrival.

roza posted: 2013-06-13 03:09:40

Well its nearly 3 in the morning but am glad i am not alone in this nightmare. A week after my English husband returned home from hospital after suffering a double stroke which has left him semi paralyzed our house was broken into. Whilst driving him to the hospital for a meeting at his diabetes doctor our front door was broken open.. the police did attend and reassured us that we cant expect anything to be recovered and though we have called them again many times they have never returned.our home had been rented from the social verhuurkantoor in Neerpelt,why its called social instead of anti social is a mind blowing.. after a few months of sleeping or attempting to sleep with a broken front door with my 12 year old daughter and disabled husband sleeping if thats what its called in shifts as all are nervous about the robbers returning. we have insurance as we were told we had to have in case this happened but it appears the head of the social verhuurkantoor has his own sideline with local companies and puts the repair of our door up to the best offer. so far wa have had reps coming to measure the whole house to make an offer to modernize,and same with our kitchen,meanwhile we live in terror with an insecure front door,both at night and during the day. house being rented by a official organization in Belgium has no meaning that it applies Belgian or European law itself as they feel exempt. I know if i grease the right palms that things would start moving as i have had t do in the past here,and just to think after living and working in Bulgaria i thought things different here in Belgium