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Collecting the updaid rent from my tenant
Hi, All.
My tenant stopped paying a rent for my apartment in Brussels. What do you suggest I do? I currently do not live in Brussels. They are supposed to move out at the end of June. Have any of you had the same experience? Do you know any good lawyer for this? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you.
You need to immediately contact them in writing and demand to know where your rent I send it via a recorded mail, if they aren't paying rent you'd better hope they have left your place in good order so that the deposit cover it .
It may well be worth asking a lawyer to make contact if you aren't here yourself. They have an obligation to pay you the rent my guess is they are trying to get their deposits back early make sure they give you a following address for bills etc
A lawyer will almost certainly cost you VERY much more than any money you may recover from your tenant.
If they are moving to different rented accommodation at the beginning of July, they will almost certainly need a reference from their previous landlady. That is the point when you stand the most chance of recovering the outstanding rent.
There is an older post where somebody posted a laywer's name with somebody having the same issue as you.
Take a look here:
http://www.xpats.com/need-help-tp-handle-my-tenant
Just fyi, a colleague of mine went through something similar; he rented an apt to somebody who didn't pay and it turns out that many tenants play the system because they know the law is on their side and they can live freely in an apartment until they get kicked out by a judge's order.
All I know is that the process might take up to 6 months even with a lawyer; my colleague's case took 5 months and he never recovered that money. Hopefully your tenant is not one of these free loaders who abuse the Belgian system to live freely in an apartment.
