The landlord gives notice: grounds, deadlines, indemnities and sanctions

# The landlord gives notice: grounds, deadlines, indemnities

A main-residence lease is not an ordinary contract: it protects someone's home. Where the tenant may leave whenever he wishes subject to notice, the landlord may only end a nine-year lease in the cases defined by the law of his Region. A notice given outside those cases is void — and a correctly given notice whose ground never materialises is very expensive.

Three texts, one architecture

Since regionalisation, each Region has its own: the Brussels Housing Code, the Walloon decree of 15 March 2018, the Flemish Residential Lease Decree. All three retained the architecture of the 1991 federal act — personal occupation, works, notice without grounds — with variations in the detail (conditions, admissible beneficiaries, formalities). Never transpose a rule read for another Region, and check the applicable text before you post your registered letter.

1. Notice for personal occupation

The most common ground, and the most closely policed.

Notice period: six months. As for the tenant, the period starts on the first day of the month following the month of notification. Notice served on 12 May makes the period run from 1 June to 30 November.

When: at any time during the nine-year lease (not only at the end of a three-year period), provided the beneficiary is close enough.

Who may occupy: the landlord himself, his spouse or cohabiting partner, his children, grandchildren, adopted children, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. For more distant relatives (uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces…), the texts are stricter: notice is in principle only possible at the expiry of the first three-year period. Check the degree of kinship first.

What the letter must contain: the identity of the future occupant and his relationship with the landlord. A notice that merely says "for personal occupation" is open to challenge.

The duty that follows: occupation must be real, effective and continuous. In practice: the beneficiary must move in within the period set by the regional text (in the order of one year after the tenant leaves) and stay at least two years.

The sanction: eighteen months' rent

If the announced occupation does not take place, or is not maintained, and the landlord cannot show exceptional circumstances, the former tenant may claim an indemnity equal to eighteen months' rent. On a rent of 900 euros, that is 16,200 euros.

Justices of the peace do apply this sanction. Bad faith need not be proven: the result is what counts. Concretely: never give notice for personal occupation "to see what happens", nor to take the property back and re-let it at a higher rent — the evicted tenant who sees a new listing appear three months later has a claim, and often wins it.

The tenant may also ask the landlord to prove the occupation.

2. Notice for major works

Notice period: six months.

When: only at the expiry of a three-year period (end of year 3 or year 6), unless a regional provision says otherwise.

Cumulative conditions (in the spirit of the three texts):

• the works must comply with planning rules (permit obtained, or not required);
• they must concern the part occupied by the tenant and make occupation impossible during the works;
• their cost must exceed a threshold expressed in years of rent (in the order of three years' rent for the property concerned; the calculation is adjusted where several units in one building belong to the same landlord).

What the letter must contain: the justification, with supporting documents (quotes, permit, plans, description of the works). A "works" notice with no file behind it does not hold.

The sanction: if the works are not carried out under the conditions and within the period announced, the same eighteen months' rent indemnity is due, barring exceptional circumstances.

3. Notice without grounds, against an indemnity

This door exists, but it is narrow and it is expensive.

When: at the expiry of the first or the second three-year period — not mid-period.

Notice period: six months, timed to coincide with the three-year expiry.

Indemnity: in the order of nine months' rent where the notice takes effect at the end of the first three-year period, and six months' rent at the end of the second. It is owed to the tenant, on top of the notice period.

⚠️ Must be verified: this is the option the Regions have legislated on most since 2018, and some have restricted or amended it. Before relying on it, read the text in force in the Region where the property is (or have it checked): a mistake here turns your notice into a nullity, leaves you with a tenant in place, and an indemnity to pay.

Short leases: very little room

On a main-residence lease concluded for three years or less:

• The landlord does not have the same early-termination options as on a nine-year lease. In Brussels and in Flanders he may in principle not end it early. Wallonia has provided a broader early-termination option for personal occupation, with a shortened notice period. Check the regional text.
• For the lease to end at the agreed term, notice must be served some months before expiry (three months, as a rule). Failing notice, the lease is deemed concluded for nine years, from the original start date, on the same rent terms. It is the costliest mistake private landlords make: a forgotten one-year lease becomes a nine-year lease.
• An extension is possible, in writing, on the same terms, without the total duration exceeding three years. The number of extensions allowed varies: check.

The form of the notice, in every case

Selling does not end the lease

Selling does not extinguish the lease. If the lease has a certain date before the sale — which is exactly what registration produces, free of charge and compulsory for the landlord — the buyer takes over the lease as it stands and may only end it in the legal cases. Without a certain date, the tenant's position is far weaker. One more reason for the tenant to check that the lease is registered — and for the landlord to register it on time.

What Domilinko does (and does not do)

Domilinko hosts the listing, the application, the time-stamped messaging, the contradictory inspection and the key handover. Those dated records are what serve you on the day a notice is disputed. However, Domilinko does not serve your notice for you: notification remains a legal act you perform, by registered letter, under your own responsibility. The platform does not collect the rent of a lease and offers neither payment guarantee nor unpaid-rent insurance.

> General information, not legal advice. A badly reasoned or badly dated notice can cost eighteen months' rent: on this particular subject, have your letter reviewed by a professional before sending it.