Flatsharing in Belgium: the pact, joint liability, and one flatmate leaving

Flatsharing is not simply renting together. Since residential-lease powers were regionalised, Brussels and Wallonia have created a dedicated flatshare regime, with a specific contract and a compulsory document between the flatmates. Flanders took a different route: no separate "flatshare" contract, but precise rules on medehuur — how a co-tenant joins and leaves. The practical consequences differ, and you need to know which set applies before you sign.

One joint lease, or several individual ones?

Two structures coexist, and they bind you in entirely different ways.

The joint lease (a single contract, signed by all the flatmates). This is the dominant form when sharing a flat or a house. You are all tenants of the whole property. It is also the form in which joint-and-several liability bites.

Individual leases (one contract per room, between the owner and each occupant, with shared use of the common areas). You rent only your room. In principle you are not liable for the others' debts. This is the model of purpose-built rooming houses and many student digs.

The question to ask the owner before anything else: "Is this a joint lease with a solidarity clause, or an individual lease per room?" The answer changes everything.

Joint-and-several liability: what it really means

In a joint lease, the solidarity (or indivisibility) clause means that each flatmate answers for the whole rent and charges, not just their share. It is not boilerplate.

Concretely: rent of €1,200, four flatmates, €300 each. If one stops paying, the owner can claim €1,200 from any of the other three — the one they judge most solvent — without first pursuing the defaulter. Whoever pays must then chase the defaulting flatmate themselves. In short: solidarity transfers the insolvency risk from the owner to you.

Under the Brussels and Walloon flatshare regimes, solidarity between flatmates is the rule. In Flanders, co-tenants who sign the same lease together are likewise bound together. The practical conclusion is the same everywhere: you do not pick flatmates lightly. You are not just sharing a kitchen — you are sharing a debt.

The flatshare pact

In both Brussels and Wallonia, the dedicated regime requires a flatshare pact (pacte de colocation / samenhuurpact) between the flatmates, separate from the lease. The owner is not a party to it: it is an agreement among yourselves.

It settles what the lease ignores:

• the split of rent and charges (equal shares or weighted by room size);
• the deposit: who paid in what, and how the leaver is reimbursed;
• an inventory of the shared furniture, and who owns it;
• upkeep and cleaning of the common areas;
• house rules: guests, noise, pets;
• the procedure on departure: internal notice, finding a replacement, how their arrival is voted;
• insurance (fire / tenant's liability, often taken out collectively).

In Flanders the decree does not impose such a pact; write one anyway. A one-page document signed by everyone will head off most conflicts and stands as evidence between flatmates.

One flatmate leaving: the real issue

This is where the Regions diverge most, and where precision matters.

The common principle. The departing flatmate must give notice, to the owner and to the other flatmates — both, not just the landlord. And as a rule they must look for a replacement. If the other flatmates and the owner accept the replacement, that person takes over the lease and the leaver is released.

The sting: what if there is no replacement? The regional texts then provide that the departing flatmate may remain jointly liable for a limited period after leaving — the logic being not to leave the owner suddenly short of rent. The length of that notice and of that residual liability differs by Region and by lease type (main-residence flatshare, student lease, short-duration lease). Do not rely on a figure heard in a bar: read your lease, and check the applicable period with Bruxelles Logement, SPW Logement or Wonen in Vlaanderen, depending on where the property is.

Two reflexes that will save you:

And the deposit? It stays blocked until the lease ends. The departing flatmate does not get "their" share back from the bank: in practice the incoming flatmate buys out the leaver's share. The flatshare pact must set that out in black and white.

Domicile, cohabitant status, charges

Domicile. Every flatmate registers at the address with the municipality. That is an obligation, not an option: your main residence must match where you actually live.

Cohabitant status. This is the least understood consequence, and the most expensive. Living with others at one address can change your position in the social-security system — unemployment benefit, integration income — because the "cohabitant" rate is lower than the "single person" rate. If you receive a benefit, check before moving in with your paying body or the public welfare centre: the question is not theoretical, and any correction is applied retroactively. Some Regions and municipalities have softened the treatment of group housing; assume nothing, ask.

Charges. Decide from the outset whether they are fixed (a flat monthly amount) or actual (provisions plus an annual reconciliation against invoices). In a flatshare, actual charges are fairer but require someone to keep the accounts: name a person in the pact. Meters (water, electricity, gas) must be read at every arrival and departure — dated, photographed.

What Domilinko does for a flatshare

Domilinko is a matching platform: it helps you find the property and apply properly, not manage your life together.

• The reusable tenant file works in a flatshare too: each flatmate builds theirs once, with income and any guarantor, and attaches it to the application.
• An application freezes a dated snapshot of each file: the owner sees the group's financial capacity as it stood on the day you applied.
• Messaging keeps a written record of exchanges with the owner — useful when a replacement has to be accepted.
• The joint inventory (time-stamped photos, meter readings, both parties' signatures) and the time-stamped key handover protect the whole group at hand-back.

What Domilinko does not do: collect the rent under a lease, lodge your deposit, guarantee a flatmate's arrears, or arbitrate a dispute between you. Solidarity is settled between you and the owner — and in the pact.

Checklist before signing

A flatshare that goes well is almost always one where those seven answers were written down before anyone moved in.