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Tenants obligations at end of rental
At 'état des lieux' today, the owner announced that I must pay quite a considerable sum (in cash) to have dried mud/leaves, etc. cleared up, and the garden entrance/garage to the house I have been renting for the past three years thoroughly cleaned.
This mess was caused by floods due to extremely heavy rain some months ago. I informed him of this by telephone at the time and did my best to clean up - it was much worse. Even though we spoke several times afterwards when I told him what I had done, and he knew that my health is such that any heavy work is impossible for me, he made no move or suggestion to follow up. He now insists it's all my responsibility and says that I should have found somebody to deal with it, take rubbish to the tip, etc..
Is he right?
If he is, I'll pay, of course, but it's a lot of money, so I'd like to be sure where I stand first.
I'm told that, in Wallonia and the Brussels Region, this kind of thing, due to weather conditions and outside the house itself, is the owner's responsibility. Is this the case in Flanders (Vossem/Terveuren area)?
If so, could somebody kindly give me the reference to the article of the law that applies, please? Failing that, could anybody tell me the name and/or address/phone number of an organisation that helps tenants with their rights such as the Office des locataires that exists in Brussels?
I ask for this help because I can't find anything for the Flemish region when I google in English and French. Or maybe I'm not understanding properly - I don't speak any Dutch and don't know anyone who does.
Thank you very much in advance for any advice you may have.
If it was quite some extensive damage I would think you would have filed a claim with your renters insurance? In this case you didn't so I would write him a registered letter stating when you talked each time with a copy of each phone call from the bill and the conclusion of each conversation plus the solution you would like to see. He can claim it on his insurance or you on yours or get three quotes to hire someone and split the bill.
Do you have a deposit on hold at the bank with him he can hold hostage? Was the inspection by an expert? Are there before and after photos?
I'd do the letter and see the response then.
I agree with SIOMAH350 above. If the damage was caused by floods, you shoudl have claimed it on your insurance. Before you get involved in a legal fight, call your insurance company first.
It's the responsability of the landlord. Dont pay a cent!.
Sorry to hear your story,. It's a typical response I fear. We had a flood twice into the gag argue and basement of a house we rented. The first time we lost washer tumble drier anything that was electric was wrecked, plus lots of boxes of stored items, we managed to claim on our insurance for most of that but not the cleaning. The charming elderly French landlady told us it was our fault for not emptying the septic tank, which had no man hole cove, was not on our inspection report at moving in, and had a cement drive over the top. She added "floods were normal in the Ardennes!! Lovely because we lived in Overijse. She didn't offer to get any cleaning done even though this flood wasn't our fault. I'd just had a Caesarian and we had a four week old baby a toddler and an older child. The second flood was just prior to our moving out, she had decide to sell because we were "difficult tenants" so we left the sewage mud all over the cellar floor and refused to clean and left the experts to fight about it at the etat des Lieux.
My experience is never trust anything a landlord says, get it in writing because then you have proof, they will screw you for every penny they can as a rule, they maybe lovely when you live there but they want their pound of flesh when you leave.
Don't pay, it is not your responsibility, just sadly another case of a Belgian landlord trying to use any means possible to extract money from their tenants. We have just left Belgian (big yayyy) and upon exit our landlady tried every single trick in the book to extract money from us for ridiculous things (too silly to name here). We stood our ground and refused to pay a cent. It's a standard trick played by landlords/ladies with no morals, they try it on and sadly some people pay. Am now more than happy to back in a country where people smile, and customer service is excellent.
