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Legal Advice for renter (tenant) protection from landlord

Question

My husband and I have moved to Brussels since March. We have rented a flat it was a good one, that's what we thought at the beginning! The flat is a duplex; the bedroom is in the basement with a small room as a cellar. We discovered leakage between the cellar and the room that transmits very bad smell due to the existence of pipes in the cellar. After living there we can’t sleep because of the smell coming out of the cellar, the humidity is high and since there is no good ventilation I started to have problems with my nose. Adding to this we have found a humidifier in the house when we have rented it, which means the landlord knew previously about it. We have asked the owner to solve the problem, after two month she sent two companies to inspect and they proposed to fix the problem by adding a ventilator to enhance the air quality, and make a fixation with the pipes. She got an expensive offer, however, she called us in a very rude way and said she won’t solve it because it is expensive, or else she can but she has to increase the rent! We can’t stay in the flat anymore because my nose problems. The owner is really arrogant, and when we told her we don't want to stay, she said since we have signed a contract for three years we have to pay three month. Or we go to a lawyer. The thing is that when we signed the contract we didn't know we will have this ventilation and humidity problem, we took it as a good and a healthy flat to live in. now she don't want to solve it. Please is there any customer protection, or renter protection. Since we are expats in Brussels we need to know what our rights are. I am sure what she is doing is illegal and since she refused to fix the problem we have to leave without paying this three month, and we have rights to say that we were tricked. Where shall we seek legal advice, or what are the process to solve this problem?

J

1. Try this:
http://www.belgium.be/fr/logement/problemes_de_logement/insalubrite/

2. Try these:
http://syndicat-des-locataires.skynetblogs.be/
https://www.facebook.com/OfficeNationalDesLocatairesAsbl

3. Maybe:
http://www.locataide.be/

Basically, she has to solve it and cannot increase the rent. But it might be simpler to get the contract annulled at their fault.

Oct 20, 2015 20:35
Bruce M

Agree with J's first posting. See this page from the first URL mentioned above.

http://logement.brussels/louer/droits-et-devoirs/plaintes-litiges/plaint...

Oct 20, 2015 23:49
awaythrow

Some years back, we had a problem with the landlord as the pipes in the bathroom kept breaking and he wouldn't fix it and his response was, you have a 3 year contract, so find me a new tenant or you have to pay if you break the contract.

We shopped around for lawyers, who by the way, can hear your case, and can tell you what you can do and that could be free. We did hire a laywer who wrote a nice letter to the landlord, and yep, landlord fixed the problem. Most landlords know that tenants don't want to spend money on a lawyer, and as they say, they wipe their butts with the tenants because they know that tenants don't know their rights. But once a landlord sees you have a lawyer, and by having I mean, the landlord receives a nice letter from your lawyer, things move a bit faster. I would spend the money on the lawyer to try to get the hell out of that place because even if they fix it, the belgian company fixing it will most likely do a shitty job, so you'll be back to square zero.

Oct 21, 2015 15:35
Gabi

Rana hi, how did you solve your problem?? I have a similar problem at the moment!

Nov 18, 2019 17:50
Rameko

We are having a similar issue with our landlord.

Mar 16, 2020 17:01