New tenancy / housing law from January 1, 2019. This change

Live The new Flemish huurdecreet will be on 1 January 2019 into force. The decree changes the rules with respect to the rent for hoofdverblijfplaatsen and studentenverhuur. For all other leases, the old rules remain applicable. Rent-Right.be lists the most important changes for tenants and landlords.

Initially, would the new Flemish huurdecreet already on 1 september 2018 entry into force, but the Flemish minister of Housing, Liesbeth Homans (N-VA), proposed the entry into force until the beginning of 2019. Written rental agreements after January 1, shall be signed, will automatically be subject to the provisions of the new decree. Lease agreements concluded for this date (whether expressly or tacitly renewed), continue to fall under the application of old (federal) woninghuurrecht.

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One of the most striking new rules is that landlords are a deposit will be able to requirements of three months rental. Previously, if the owner maximum two months rent as security questions. the

This new rule made a lot of debate . “The balance must be made between the security for the lessor in case of default or damage, and the accessibility to the private rental market for financially weaker tenants,” explains lawyer Griffin Verept of Rent-Law.be. “To have two interests to be reconciled, the deposit is pulled up, but by the legislature, a new opportunity to huurwaarborglening worked out.”

moreover, the decree also a additional sanction for when the deposit not a suspended account is set. The tenant, a guarantee of cash has been remitted, the amount to apply as payment of the rent. At the same time, the tenant must have the same amount on a blocked account.

A lease of nine years remains the rule. The short contracts of up to three years can also still. New is, however, that the lessee contracts of short-term now termination possibility , provided of course the observance of a certain period of notice and compensation. The compensation is one and a half, a whole or a half month of the rent, depending on whether you cancel in the first, second or third year.