JuridischForum.be

Sorry u te mogen toespreken in het engels, maar mijn nederlands is nog niet goed genoeg. Verontschuldigingen.

Few weeks ago I purchased an house in Belgium with my girlfriend. This house is rented. The contract reports:"Deze huurovereenkomst is gesloten voor een periode van 01 july 2013 tot 30 juni 2016". Moreover, the contract is NOT registered.
Following the advice of a real estate agent, I wrote a letter giving three month notice (because he was refering to this document http://justitie.belgium.be/nl/binaries/ ... 138431.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, page 53, paragraph 2b). The tenants replied that, after consulting the 'huurdersyndicaat' this notice is not rightful and they declined to leave the house within three months.
It seems that the real estate was wrong as the notice seems to be of six months, as per advice of "balie leuven" (http://www.balieleuven.be/gratis_advies.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). As our intention is to go to live there as soon as possible, the lawyer at "balie leuven" advice us to refer to 'art3 §2 van de Wethuur'.

Nevertheless, we found few references that the previous case of six-month notice, in case the landlord wants to live in his property, is applicable only with a nine year contract. Is this true? Also here on the forum I found on this topic (http://www.juridischforum.be/forum/view ... 8&start=15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) this sentence "Het gebruik van het goed door de verhuurder of een naaste mag niet worden aangevoerd om een huurovereenkomst van drie jaar te beëindigen." but we don't know if it is applicable to our case.

In case we have the right of this six-month notice, we would like to do already from 1st October. If there is someone who is willing to help us to write such a letter, it will be greatly appreciated and rewarded.

Hartelijk dank aan iedereen die ons kan helpen!

Unfortunately, for short-term contracts (3 years or less), you can not give notice before the end of the contract, unless the contract explicitly provides this possibility. Based on the response of your tenants, this is not the case, and your only possibility is to find an agreement with your tenants where they are willing to leave voluntarily. Either they are willing and you will have to give in to their demands (within reason), or they are not and you will have to wait until 3 months before the end of the term to give notice.

The problem is that in our country, the law is in favor of the tenant, especially for early endings of short-term contracts. Last time we had to end such a contract, we gave an entire year of income. The contract had to stop early for demolishing the house and building flats. I think you can get better conditions, because you want to use the house for yourself, a judge will take this in account. It's not a pleasant thing to reply, but you won't get out without paying a big amount of money.

Small correction to Turaki's post: to signify the end or not prolongation of a rental contract with a fixed time period of three years or less you do not have to give notice. Instead you will have to give the renters an written confirmation that the contract will not be prolonged and will effectively end on 30/06/2016. This letter will have to reach them at least three months before the end their contract.

Since this is basic law concidering house renting in Belgium I am afraid you got duped by the real estate agent selling you the house, as this is basic information he should have provided you with when you made your wishes clear to him. At least he should have warned you that with this type of rental contract moving into the house before the end of it was going to be extremely unlikely without negotiating a stiff relocation fee with the current inhabitants...

Thank you very much for all your replies.

At the end I've got lucky and the tenants are willing to move out by the end of the year.

Thanks again!