Finding somewhere to live in Brussels

The lease you are actually signing

The default residential lease in Brussels runs nine years with break points at three and six — the 3-6-9 — and the tenant can leave at any time on three months' notice, but leaving in the first three years costs an indemnity of three, two or one month's rent depending on the year. A short lease of up to three years is the common alternative and can be broken by the tenant on notice with an indemnity too, but it converts to a nine-year lease if it runs on. Which one you sign should follow how long you actually intend to stay, not which one the agent puts in front of you.

• Bail de résidence principale / hoofdverblijfplaats is the regime that gives you the protections.
• Tenant notice is three months in most cases, plus an indemnity in the early years.
• Rent is indexed once a year on the anniversary, using the health index (indice santé).
• The landlord must register the lease — it is free, it is their duty, and it protects you if the building is sold.

The inventory and the deposit

The entry inventory is drawn up by both parties, usually by an independent expert whose fee is split, and it is a detailed, room-by-room, defect-by-defect record with photographs. The deposit is two months' rent in a blocked account opened in your name, which neither you nor the landlord can release alone — a landlord asking for cash or a transfer to their own account is outside the rules. At the end, the exit inventory is compared against the entry one and only the difference beyond normal wear is chargeable.

• Garantie locative: two months, in a blocked account in the tenant's name.
• Insist on a written état des lieux with photographs, signed by both parties.
• Meter readings for gas, electricity and water belong in the inventory too.
• Never accept “we will sort the inventory later” — later means never, and the presumption is against you.

Charges, and the spring surprise

Advertised rents are followed by monthly charges (charges / lasten) that are provisional: you pay an estimate all year and it is reconciled against actual building costs and consumption afterwards. A flat with suspiciously low provisions is not cheap, it is deferred. Ask what the charges actually covered in the last two years, and ask whether they include heating, which in a collective-boiler building is the largest line.

• Ask for the last two annual reconciliations (décompte de charges) before signing.
• Establish whether heating is individual or collective, and who reads the meters.
• The PEB / EPB energy certificate is mandatory in listings and tells you what winter costs.

Where to look, and the commune effect

Immoweb is the dominant portal, with agencies handling most of the stock and direct-from-owner lettings common in the older communes. Which of the nineteen communes you land in determines your administrative language, your local taxes, your rubbish collection and your school catchment, and the differences are real even between adjacent streets. Unfurnished here usually means genuinely bare — often without light fittings — so budget for the fit-out.

In order

1. 1Decide how long you are staying before choosing between a nine-year and a short lease.
2. 2Ask for the PEB certificate and the last two charge reconciliations.
3. 3Open the blocked deposit account — the money goes there, not to the landlord.
4. 4Commission the état des lieux jointly and photograph everything, meters included.
5. 5Confirm the landlord has registered the lease.
6. 6Take over the gas and electricity contracts with a signed meter reading dated the day you move in.