Yes, I should've known better. I should have realized that 3 months notice PLUS 3 month's penalty would be required to leave Belgium. My landlord, while accepting my notification, said he would not honor it until APRIL although I gave it to him at the beginning of this month. This was not in the contract, but I looked it up, and it is typically true of Belgian laws.
I received little support with this worth of thing from my firm (I was hired directly into a Belgian company, not transferred in from another office). I should've known that signing multiple documents while jet -lagged and low on translation ability was a bad decision. All this I should've known, and yet I am here, and feeling trapped. I cannot even give notice at my work because this penalty would lead to absolute financial devastation for my husband and I. I thought, this must happen to expats all the time. And there must be some assistance for them.
We are getting legal help, have learned that the contract was in all likelihood not registered, and therefore will not have to pay penalties. However we have learned that because this is a new law, the offices are backlogged and it could take MONTHS to retrieve the registration.
All this because we must go home, not WANT to, mind you, but HAVE to, due to numerous concerns (financial, familial, etc...). Well I guess a trip home during this process will help my mental state, but in the meantime I feel I am having a nervous breakdown.
We did offer to negotiate with our landlord, but he will not budge. If I can't afford the move, I don't want to become a criminal. What would be the ultimate consequence? At this point I will could sign over the security anyway, I just don't want to be in months of financial depression after that.
If I've done nothing else but prevent someone else from making the same mistake, I've done my job.

And, by the way, this is the best (the 9 year lease) Belgium has to offer. Pro-tenant my tuckus.

It seems like you've had a lot of problems with your rental situation.

Notice periods always begin on the first day of the following month. That's just how it is here in Belgium. If you wanted your notice to begin on March 1, your landlord would have had to receive your letter on or before February 29.

Before you give notice at your work, check if this will also be the case there.

No, unfortunately. My work clause states that anytime within my trial period, my employer or I can give a week's notice. That works great for people who move here as expats. Again, yes, I know I could've shown more smarts, but due to the means which I was hired, I didn't have a relocation firm or anyone help me do this stuff when I got here. Knowing Dutch and reading contracts thoroughly, plus having your HR person check them and say, :"This is the best you can do," I just wish I'd protected myself better as no one else was going to obviously.

You can look for a tenant yourself. I had to break a contract but I found a tenant for the same rent and the landlord had no problems. You can use immoweb.be and vlan.be to advertise.

Hope it all works out. All the best

if you are in need of short term accomodation, maybe i can help, where i am there are 2 rooms empty..low or no rent for a couple of months,..

Tja... good luck with that. Our landlord notified us, "Oh, even if you find someone we are willing to dock 2 months rent"--ie: pay 5 months instead of 7...the one month penalty for filing THREE days into march PLUS 3 months notice PLUS 3 months penalty...maybe NICE landlord would do it...not OURS, but since he did not register the contract, we are being nice and splitting the deposit with him...poor thing. Well, since he smacked us with "that is Belgian law," we smacked him right back.

Cheers, Chris...you are welcome at our pad anytime as well...although it will probably near the Pacific from now on...nowhere near the North Sea...

Really, thanks. Since we have decided to leave we have met so many more wonderful people here. Keep the love flowin', kids...

Alohas

Good riddance.....
Don't let the door bang you on the ass when you leave.

Pay no attention to SpaZZy. Pacific sounds great. Me and the wife may be heading out that way (either CA or North Asia) and some friends of hers are about to move out that way too. Gambatte ne...

Cheers bags. maybe we'll catch you on a beach someday. Let me know if you really are going there...I am originally from CA & while I think it has a lot to offer, there are areas to avoid as well. As I said before, nice people are welcome to crash wherever we are. And while it did not work out for us in Belgium, I have no reason to Belgium-bash. It is just like those relationships that only last a few months, where you realize it just wasn't right.

Incidentally, I also lived in NL before...so I have some experience in the area. This particular job/living situation was just not right.

http://www.blbe.be/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=1873&V_LANG_ID=5

Have a look at point 6.

6. Must I register my tenancy agreement? If yes, where and why?

Once a lease has been signed, it must be registered within two months. Since 1 January 2007, this legal obligation to register the rental agreement falls under the obligations of the landlord.

Failure to register gives the tenant the right to end the lease at any time, without giving prior notice or paying any penalty.

Hope this will help.
I am about to move to Antwerpen, but I do not speak Flamish, and it is my concern how to avoid this kind of situation.
I have one question that is not to clear to me.
Even you sign 9 years contract but end it before the end of the third year with providing three months notice, do you still have to pay penalty, or you only pay the penalty if you do not provide the notice? This is a bit confusing to me.

Yes we also found this loophole, but we still have the security deposit to worry about...as I said we are being nice & willing to sign over half...but he can still refuse to sign it. You DO pay the penalty EVEN IF you provide the notice...this was what we were also unclear on...which almost got us completely screwed. So 3 months notice PLUS 3 months penalty if you leave in the first year, 3 months notice PLUS 2 months penalty in the 2nd year, until after 3 years you pay no penalty, but you STILL hafta give 3 months notice. You can ask your new landlord to include a clause if you do have to get out...but it may or may not be enforced in court. I would go through a real estate agent & also have them check the contract, along with your employer & anybody else who you trust might look out for your interests.

Hi,

I have a similar problem, how do I find out whether the landlord has registered the contract as per clause 6? Is it via the town hall?

http://www.blbe.be/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=1873&V_LANG_ID=5


Also I have shoddy electrics, wires badly exposed and plug points that almost completely fall out when you remove a plug (especially over the sink which is really worrying!)

Thanks for any assistance