Discover the 7 crucial steps to take when your tenant doesn’t pay. From legal considerations to practical tips, find advice for dealing with a defaulter and unpaid rent.
Contents – What if your tenant doesn’t pay
- Step 1: Registered notice of default
- Step 2: Registered proposal installment plan
- Step 3: Contact rental assistance
- Step 4: Contact the justice of the peace
- Step 5: Contact the bailiff
- Step 6: Have the lease officially terminated
- Step 7: Reclaim the overdue rent
- What is prohibited by law?
Step 1: Registered notice of default
You agreed on a day in the lease when the tenant must deposit his/her rent. When you notice that your tenant is not paying, send him/her a registered formal notice as soon as possible. Inquire about the reason for the late payment. Refer to your tenant’s obligations and set a deadline by which you expect the rent to be paid. Is the tenant temporarily unable to pay the rent? Then agree on a repayment plan. Make sure you put this plan in writing, so it is not open to discussion later.
Step 2: Registered proposal installment plan
Don’t get a response to your formal notice? Send him/her a second registered letter and suggest in it a repayment plan of your own.
Step 3: Contact rental assistance
This step is optional. It is usually the tenant who engages this service. You can skip this step.
If your tenant does not pay and refuses, fails to comply with the repayment plan or is unresponsive, engage a mediator as a third independent party. Choose a local mediation service, a free reconciliation hearing at the justice of the peace or the free mediation service for students. Find out where to do that here: Rent mediation in Flanders
Step 4: Contact the justice of the peace
If mediation fails, contact the justice of the peace with:
- Prove by means of the written letters that you informed the tenant several formal times.
- The request to terminate the lease.
- Demand to order eviction of tenant.
Starting proceedings at the justice of the peace usually costs between 35 and 50 euros. This is the cost of the “rolling fee. The procedure starts in 3 ways:
- By voluntary appearance. Here, both parties jointly file a petition.
- By petition of the court.
- By a subpoena from the bailiff.
Note: The landlord (plaintiff) must advance the cost of the rolling fee.
Step 5: Contact the bailiff
If your tenant refuses to leave the property, call in a bailiff who will evict your tenant from the house or apartment already.
Step 6: Have the lease officially terminated
If your tenant left the property, contact the justice of the peace and ask him/her to dissolve the lease. Upon approval, you will own your property again.
Step 7: Reclaim the overdue rent
When you regain possession of your property, you should try to get the rent back. Sometimes you get it back easily. Sometimes you have a tenant who doesn’t want to pay it back. In that case, there are these 4 options:
- Contact the CPAS of your municipality.
- Contact the justice of the peace and ask him/her to use the rent deposit.
- Ask the justice of the peace to have the bailiff seize movable property (such as furniture, car, TV, etc.). Then the bailiff sells these items to pay off the tenant’s debt.
- Ask the justice of the peace to seize the tenant’s income.
7.1. Wat als de wanbetaler vlucht?
Send a registered letter of reminder to the new address as well as to the tenant’s e-mail address. Or to the address of your rental property, if you don’t know his/her new address. If it turns out that your tenant no longer lives there, contact the bailiff. If the rent arrears have accumulated, contact your attorney to locate the tenant.
What is prohibited by law?
Note! If your tenant does not pay, you are legally prohibited from resolving the rental dispute yourself by replacing your locks and/or evicting the tenant yourself (even if this is included in your lease).
Sources: First Aid Debt, Dewaele, Testaankoop, Flanders
Would you like to cite this article as a source? Then use:
Stiasteny, L. (2024, Nov. 1). What if your tenant doesn’t pay? Apartment.be. Accessed on (date XX/XX/202X), from https://www.appartement.be/wat-als-je-huurder-niet-betaalt/
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