Registration of your lease
Leases in Belgium must be registered with the local office of the Receiver of Registrations, Ministry of Finance (Enregistrement/Registratie) within four months of being signed.
Technically, you can be fined for forgetting this formality. It is in your own interest to remember to ensure that the registration of the lease takes place and any changes made during the term of the lease. Don’t let your landlord discourage you from the registration process.
If the landlord wants to sell the property, the new owner can only be held to the terms of the existing lease if these have been properly registered. If you haven’t registered your lease, the new owner is free to evict you, raise your rent or change any of the other terms of your rental contract! If the lease is registered, the new owner must respect any rental agreements that are already in place.
Registration of a Lease in Brussels
The following information comes from the office of the Commissioner of Brussels
"Registration of the Lease is mandatory! When the lease has been signed, the owner must register it, together with the incoming inventory check, within two months. This procedure is free of charge. (Art. 227, al. 1 BHC)
After the two-month period and for as long as the lease agreement has not been registered by the owner, the termination notice periods and any compensation due by the tenant to the owner do not apply – provided that the tenant has sent a final demand, by registered post, to the owner requesting him to register the lease, and that this request has not been acted upon by the owner within one month. (Art. 227, al. 2 BHC)
Where?
The lease agreement must be registered at the official registration office (Bureau du Receveur de l’Enregistrement, 54 Rue de la Régence, 1000 Brussels – Tel: 02/578.09.73 – open from 8h to 12h).
Documents required?
The owner must have three copies of the rental contract (the original + two photocopies). The owner and the tenant each keep one copy of the contract while the Bureau du Receveur de l’Enregistrement keeps the third version."