Rental charges are the costs associated with the use of the rented property and are payable in addition to the rent. Your landlord is entitled to charge them to you. What are rental charges and how are they calculated?

The different forms of rental charges

When renting a flat or a house, the tenant has to pay part of the costs of the use and maintenance of the building and the energy consumption.

• Energy-related costs Electricity in common areas, water, heating, etc.
• Maintenance costs of the common areas maintenance of the lift, cleaning of the stairwells, gardening, clearing of snow, salary of the caretaker...
• Costs related to repairs in the dwelling broken locks, taps or tiles due to inappropriate use or an accident...

To be noted The landlord cannot ask the tenant to pay taxes related to the rented accommodation. The landlord will also pay for major repairs, municipal taxes and charges for dilapidated work, even if they are normally part of the rental charges.

If you have a dispute with your landlord about the fixing of charges, consult this article.

Pay attention to the co-ownership regulations!

Are there certain charges that are not mentioned in your rental agreement and yet you are asked to pay them? You should know that if the co-ownership regulations mention a division of these costs between the tenants, this clause prevails over your lease contract. You will therefore be required to pay these rental charges.

Finally, in the case of a condominium, only costs related to a service or equipment used by the tenant are charged to the tenant. Lift costs may not appear in the rental charges for a ground floor flat, for example.

How to pay your rental charges?

The landlord is entitled to ask for advances on charges even if this is not mentioned in the lease agreement. These must be reasonably calculated on the basis of the rental charges that the tenant will actually have to pay. From the second year of the lease onwards, these advances will be based on the consumption of the year N-1. The periodicity of the advances can be decided jointly by the two parties. A regularisation of the charges is carried out at the end of the financial year.

If the advance payment principle does not suit both the lessor and the lessor, it is possible to switch to the flat rate system at any time.

Good to know In some cases, one of the parties may wish to increase or decrease the amount of the advances. This request must be made in writing. If an agreement is not reached, the rent board can intervene and deliberate on the amount of the advance payment of rental charges. This procedure can only be carried out if the accommodation has been rented for more than 6 months by the current tenant.