Nathalie rented her house in Dampremy (Charleroi) to a young man with income from the CPAS. Wanting to do some work and fit out the accommodation, he practically destroyed everything. Broken walls, a screwed up electrical installation,… the house is unrecognizable. The tenant being insolvent, Nathalie must repair everything at her expense.
Nathalie was flabbergasted when she discovered the state of her accommodation. Since April, she has been renting her house to a young tenant, who receives income from the CPAS.
A few months later, she discovered her house partly destroyed. Did the tenant want to develop the dwelling or ransack it? The owner still does not understand the objective sought by the young man.
With the intervention of a lawyer, she was able to have him expelled. Problem: the ex-tenant is insolvent. All repairs will be at his expense.
Along with her mother, she showed us around her home to show us the extent of the damage. “I was disgusted. I had first rented the building to a girl before this young man. I helped him and when I entered the house and saw the damage, I ran away “, says Natalie. “I was very upset because I rented my building to him for 400 euros… and he destroyed it for me… I burned myself to pay for it, I worked. I’m going to have to grind myself once more at 46. I don’t see how I might file an appeal. I’m stuck. Damage worth tens of thousands of euros. He’s not going to pay anything.“Monique, Nathalie’s mother, for her part described the”disaster“inside the house. “All the electricity is broken. They removed the marble fireplace. They removed the gas pipes. cellar door has been removed. The heating no longer works because there is no connection. There is unheard-of dirt. The walls are cracking.”
“I’ve never seen that in my life”
She says she felt like she was going to fall to the ground in front of this “disaster”. “I’ve never seen that in my life. I’ve seen damaged houses before, but like that, never in my life. I didn’t think people might destroy everything like that. I don’t know what it’s for. played. We haven’t heard from him. He paid 2-3 times the rent, then he mightn’t pay anymore. He may have thought he was at home. But si you do work in your house, you do one piece at a time, it seems to me.”
Lawyer for 32 years and specialist in tenancy law, Sabine Delhaye confirms that no recourse is possible for Nathalie.
“The problem is that when the tenant is not workinghas no real estate, no car, anything beyond this constituted rental guarantee, can never be recovered in reality.”
“If the tenant is solvent, there is no problem. We can, on the basis of an exit inventory generally established by an expert, claim the amount of damage caused by the tenant. There will be recourse to traditional input methods. To be compensated when tenants cause damage, this is called the rental guarantee, which is for a maximum of 2 months if it is paid on an account in the name of the tenant. It can reach 3 months if it is a bank guarantee or a guarantee paid by the CPAS. Most rental guarantees are for a maximum of 2 months’ rent, which is not huge to cover significant rental damage.”
According to Sabine Delhaye, it happens “very regularly” that a tenant who has not paid several months’ rent is “insolvent”. “We are facing a real problem of recovering these rents to be paid. There is nothing to be done.”
The lawyer wants to warn the owners who are regarding to rent their property. “It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the person will be able to pay the rent and respect their obligations as a tenant. The family will not pay the debts of someone else. It is only at death, if a person accepts the succession that the family will come, the heirs will come. But this kind of scenario (the situation experienced in Dampremy), it is obvious that the heirs will renounce the succession, which is perfectly their right.
Do not leave 3-4 months of rent arrears
Sabine Delhaye advises to act quickly when a problem arises in the payment of rents.
“We must not let 3-4 months of rent arrears accumulate because legal proceedings take at least 1 or 2 months. If we have to end up terminating the lease because the tenant does not pay rent, that takes a long time to evict him. It can take 5-6 months. The sooner we act, the better. As soon as there is two months without payment of the rent, there is no point in letting go. If you notice that there are problems paying the rent, send a letter of formal notice very quickly, give him reminders, and go before a justice of the peace because each month that passes is a month when the landlord will not be not paid. To end the lease, it is absolutely necessary to go before the justice of the peace.”
Go through a social real estate agency?
To avoid this kind of situation, a solution for owners would also be to go through a social real estate agency.
Véronique De Mesmaeker, UWAIS coordinator (Walloon Union of Social Real Estate Agencies), explains how using this type of agency can be beneficial for renting a property.
“Owners who put their property in management with a social real estate agency are 100% relieved of the rental management of their property. They are also assured of payment of the rent (reduced on average by 30%) whatever happens, whether the accommodation is occupied or not,” she explains.
“During the management, there is an entry inventory which is signed with the owner, so that the owner is assured that at the end of the management mandate, his property will be returned exactly in the same condition. There is the assurance throughout the management and rental mandate that the property will be restored between each tenant.”
Véronique De Mesmaeker also speaks specifically regarding what Nathalie experienced in Dampremy.
“When the tenant left, there would have been the rental guarantee which would have covered part of the costs. When there is the commitment of the social real estate agency to properly maintain the property and restore it to its previous state , all the work would have been paid for by the social real estate agency. The owner would not have had to pay anything.”
The mission of the social housing agencies (AIS) is thus to provide households in a precarious situation (with modest or average incomes) with quality housing, which meets all the rules.
“The public who pushes the door of a social real estate agency is by definition, a public who has financial difficulties, who is sometimes financially discriminated once morest. They have difficulty finding accommodation in the private sector, because of their financial difficulties All its people have the right to come and register in a social real estate agency The AIS do not refuse any means of constitution of the rental guarantee, that is to say that we accept rental guarantees which are constituted by the help of a CPAS.”
The entire sector in Wallonia manages more than 7,500 housing units. Currently, demand is higher than supply since more than 21,000 candidate tenants are registered with social housing agencies.
