Etats des Lieux, Experts, Difficult Landlords

Hi there. I hope someone can help with advice and/or answers to our situation. Like many who live in Brussels, our landlord has been very nice, kind, and helpful until now when we have given our notice.

We had verbally shared with them our plans in April but without any definite date nor confirmation. We had talked about then our 3 years came up in July or at least during the summer but could not provide any concrete arrangements to confirm. They quickly found a new tenant (which we were aware of) and unbeknownst to us, signed a new contract with a move in date beginning July before our lease would run out. Nothing was confirmed and all of a sudden we found ourselves being pressured to move out by end June. What is worse, we were also being forced to move not even on the 30th but on the 26th. We tried to make the landlord understand that international relocations do not always happen overnight and planning is involved but they just kept reiterating their position.

Later on we found out that this was because the landlord wanted a few days to have work done. Unfortunately, this was not possible for us and the landlord continued to pressure us, as well as lie that there was no new contract. As we did not like "playing the game" (we realised we were turning into the aggressive monsters our friendly landlords had suddenly transformed into) were we just decided we would just let our lease run its course till the end of our 3 years. At this point, the landlord said that we would now have to give 3 months written notice, negating the verbal warning we gave. And so, we comprehending our naive mistake, we gave our written notice for end of August.

I contacted our expert for the etat de lieux and he was available for the end of the month. I called their expert and I thought that if I managed to get him as well, we just needed to sign-off with the owner. Their expert was not available at the end of the month and "coincidentally" he is only available one week before the end of the month, a pattern that has already been repeated during the earlier attempts to get an appointment with him. I cannot confirm but suspect their expert has been briefed because we are looking at a date 3 months from now. He could really be already booked up but after all the events, I now have my doubts.

If the landlord's expert is not free at the end of the month when we leave, what are the alternatives? Unfortunately, we cannot do otherwise and need to move out the as close as possible to the end of the month. So if the movers,come a few days before, this should give us time to ensure the apartment is ready for the etat des lieux. If the expert of the landlord is not available and there is no other date for us since we cannot adjust our departure, can we force them to just take another expert?

I suspect that the landlord is hoping to wear us down with this tactic but I want to get advice on what is the practice here. It may be worthy to mention as well that he said the etat des lieux must be done on the day we leave before the end of the month. I have known others who have had theirs done after they have left provided the apartment was empty and nothing was touched. I was also told by the landlord that only the experts, after doing their etat des lieux could signal the utility company(ies) to terminate service. I don't know now whether this is just another one of his ploys to try and get us.

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts you are able to share. This is just an abridged overview of the difficulties we have faced. We hope to be able to leave without screwing anybody. Our goal is not to put one over the landloard although he probably thinks this is what we are up to. We are also landlords in the UK and clearly see both sides. Finally, we are only trying to do what is fair and honest, without ourselves being taken for a ride.