Landlord Tenant Issue. Deposit

Dear Expat community:

I apologize in advance for the length of this account. I have included a considerable amount of detail in hopes that somebody here can provide an accurate answer as to our legal recourse is in this matter. 

Feel free to get back to me in French if you so prefer. I can understand and speak the language fairly well, though I am more comfortable posting in English.

I am writing on behalf of my partner mostly, who has an unresolved dispute with his landlady since January 2018. We need sound advice or a referral to the proper institution to handle this matter.  Perhaps there is some pro-bono service that can offer legal advice?. We are both students with modest means and cannot afford to retain a private attorney.

The remediation we are seeking is the return of a rental deposit, in the lack of any damages to the property rented by my boyfriend, "S", and the pro-rated monthly rent for January. My boyfriend and I were forced to leave the rental property under threats of physical harm, and actual display of physical violence by, another tenant, and the absolute lack of action on the part of the landlady to protect the well-being and safety of the people under her roof, including refusal to call the police.  A further breach of contract on the part of this landlady is explained. 

My boyfriend rented a room for a year on the fourth floor of a private house in Brussels, until the end of June 2018. He works as a post-doc researcher at the university and needed a tranquil, clean and smoke-free place to live and work long hours, after having had a less-than-pleasant experience as a tenant in another house.

He rented the place from a lady who lives on the premises. There was another woman as a tenant in the room next to his, prior to his arrival. There was one bathroom for the tenants of the three rooms she was renting out. The landlady occupied the second and third floor and had her own bathroom.  Tenants could use the kitchen (minus the oven) and some of the plates and cutlery. My boyfriend signed the contract and moved in once he was assured SMOKING WAS ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE HOUSE, as advertised, as he suffers from mild asthma but also, deeply dislikes smoking.

An empty room on the first floor, near the entrance of the house, was awaiting a new tenant.

Everything was alright with the landlady and the female tenant and the only thing he missed was the fact that, for some reason, he was not allowed to register with the city while living in her house, as he found out after he settled in.

About two-weeks or a month upon his arrival, a young man ("D") rented the room on the first floor. The tensions with him began almost immediately. The young man clearly smoked in his room and the hallway of the house. S politely requested that he did not smoke in the house and reminded him that, as per contract, that was not allowed. The guy replied in a hostile way he would smoke if he wanted.  Successive requests by my boyfriend (who did not exchange any other comments or words at all with this tenant) ended up with this man raising his fists close to my boyfriend's face and inviting him to "solve this matter in the park".

S. speaks English and understands and speaks some French. This person spoke just French to him, but the aggressive gesturing and demeanor were evident and with each request or interaction, escalating.

The man would also leave the shared bathroom in disgraceful conditions, never cleaning after himself, and would sometimes come up to the fourth-floor clearly smoking, though my boyfriend never saw him doing so because he preferred to keep the door shut while D. was around. The landlady had also left a sign next to the only window on the staircase and hallway requesting not to open it at any time. S. had to keep his own window open to dissipate the smoke which, for some reason, seemed to accumulate there more than in any other part of the house. In the winter, he had to turn off his heater and leave the window open, which ended up affecting his lungs badly. 

By August 2017 he had talked to the landlady and asked her to do something about the situation. He had moved there after he had been reassured the house would be safe, clean and, more than anything, smoke-free. The landlady said she had talked to this new tenant but "he was just not listening". The worse part was that the very few interactions S, would have with D, always left him with the impression this man lacked self-control and could be dangerous. Every verbal exchange was accompanied by him raising his fists and making threats of physical harm.

S did not feel at ease to work in the house, his respiratory problems began to worsen and the smoke was particularly bad during the night when he was trying to sleep.  This man did not work for most of the time he spent there, and smoke all the hours S was in the house. Most concerning, he began also verbally assaulting the landlady, as per her later account to me. He was using implements in the kitchen he was not allowed to, leaving dirty plates and utensils on the counter and in the sink.

In September, S told the landlady that he would have to leave and they would have to rescind the contract if things continued this way. She said she would talk to the tenant again and, if things didn't improve, ask him to leave. S had to spend most of the next 4 months abroad for work and very little time in the house in Brussels, but every time he did go back to Brussels the same cycle would repeat itself: he would ask D. not to smoke in the house and to please clean after himself in the common spaces and the man would threaten him with raised, clenched fists, the landlady beating around the bush.

S began considering seeking legal help, but he was really busy at work between two countries and felt overwhelmed by the situation at home.

The landlady had turned to complain how this man was using her private bathroom now, how he left dirty dishes everywhere, took some of her food, and the smoke bothered her as well, but aside from that, she was not doing anything concrete to put him out of her home, despite expressing fear because he was verbally abusive towards her.   

S had asked for permission from the landlady to have me visiting him for a few weeks (around three) in December and January, and she had granted it. I had some nice talks with her and we were friendly to each other, sharing tea and some dinners, but I was stricken by her inability to do anything about the ongoing situation and her apparent lack of awareness of danger.

She would complain to me about D but then, laugh his behavior off as "mischievousness". She even insinuated that maybe the female tenant, "L" was the one smoking (which we knew was NOT the case) or that perhaps D. was doing that in purpose around S. to annoy him (!). A very mature, reassuring answer indeed.

A few days before I arrived in Belgium, this man had chased after a couple of teenagers who had left some leaflet on his window, to hit them for doing so, because they had "woken him up"  at noon.

When the landlady came back to the house from work, the front door was damaged, the lists cracked open, clearly kicked in by someone. The tenant said to her it was the teenagers who did it and she got the police involved. A huge mess developed with the school these children attended and their parents coming to the house several times. The landlady started to suspect her tenant had actually damaged the door in an impulse of rage. 

Then, a few days before I arrived, the tenant punched his window and shattered the glass, cutting his own fist in the process. I saw the broken shards of glass on the floor outside the house, where they had fallen. The landlady said she was going to have to call the police. According to her, D. had said: "oh, can we please tell them it was the teenagers from the other day who damaged the window too?" She refused to do so and told him SHE WOULD NOT CALL THE POLICE IF HE PAID for the window he had broken (which he eventually did after repeated entreaties by the landlady. 

At that point, I was really concerned about the inaction on her part, despite her constant complaints as to how afraid she was of her tenant, and I told her I was very worried for my boyfriend's safety after I left, as I had heard him and seen him threatening S.  I had no reasons yet to feel truly afraid for myself. S is a very quiet, reserved person and he just tried avoiding this man, but D. sometimes sought opportunities to pick up a fight with S.  When I arrived I first treated him as a normal person, greeted him in the morning and when he came into the kitchen, but eventually, his behavior was so off-putting that I also preferred to ignore him.  This seemed to enrage him even more. 

When I asked the landlady why she had not called the police, when D was clearly breaking property (he had also destroyed his bed), taking her stuff and our stuff and threatening the people in the house, she said she was concerned about D. He "was a human being, after all" "He had been kicked out from his parents house, and then from the prior place where he lived; he had had problems with the law (that week he had also threatened his social worker who came to visit him and decided not to come back after that) and had lost his job", and, she revealed, "the government was paying for his rent and his living expenses". D., by the way, was in his early thirties or late twenties.

She had had problems with another tenant before, for what I gathered, related to lack of payment and it seemed to me that the secured paycheck by the government was a strong incentive for her to keep this dangerous man in the house, at the expense of the safety and tranquility of everybody else's, including herself and her best friend, who came to visit and had also been a victim of D.'s  threats. 

Right before my last week in Brussels, when tension was at it highest, I was taking a shower. I heard D. cursing in French (I understood clearly the things he said) and he knocked violently on the door as he kept on cursing. I tried, as politely as possible, to ask him to give me a few minutes. As he increased the shouting and the cursing, I felt scared (S. was downstairs and could not hear the exchange) and I left the shower without rinsing and got rapidly dressed, but was afraid of opening the door. I heard him going down and I took advantage to go into my boyfriend's room and then he came back upstairs (after apparently fetching my boyfriend to complain I was occupying the bathroom and I had no right to since I did not live there). S and I discussed what could be done with the situation at this point and he decided he was going to begin retaining part of his rent or putting it in an escrow account until the landlady acted to improve things, but we didn't know how to go about it.

The next day, I went to use the toilet after seeing D. going into his bedroom and I was there for three minutes (part of which time I spent cleaning D's dirt, before being able to use it) when he climbed up the staircase and knock on the door in rage. At that moment I told him as calmly as I could to please stop banging on the door, that I would be just two minutes. He would not stop yelling and he said, in French, he was going to kill me.

At that point, I didn't feel it was safe to leave the bathroom and I refused to open the door. I was not sure where S. was and I began to call him. D. went downstairs to complain to the landlady and I heard very loud yelling and things breaking and I opened the door and went into our room. Stephan was running downstairs because the landlady and D were arguing and D threatened her and hit the sink spout shattering it to pieces.

The landlady locked herself in her room and S came upstairs and I told him he must call the police.

D. went into his room and eventually left the house, and the landlady refused to call the police, calling instead a plumber, friend of hers, to come fix the pipe and faucet and telling me, when I came downstairs, that "D. would have to pay for it".

I was shocked that was all she seemed to care about. She also told me he had threatened her life that morning and I was astonished and angry she would not call the police. I felt since I was just a visit it was not up to me to call the police and I was getting desperate at S. for not doing so himself.  On top of that, she wanted to know if S or I could stay there that afternoon DESPITE D. COMING BACK TO THE HOUSE, to open the door for the plumber so he could fix the faucet and the sink. I could not believe it. For as long as we still stayed there, the sink was broken and water had to be carried down in casseroles from the bathroom in the fourth floor since the plumber did not come for at least two days.

It was so obvious things were getting much worse with this man, D. that S. and I felt very unsafe and decided to find another place that evening. S. could not go work at the university that afternoon and I had to cancel an important appointment as well. 

The landlady told S. in October she had informed D. he needed to move out by the end of that month but "he just hadn't". S. asked her again, in November, what was going to be done, and in November she said she had asked D. again and he was supposed to be leaving before December but then, again, "he just didn't". S. and I went away for 2 weeks then.

S. had decided not to do much more at first because he trusted the landlady was really saying the truth and trying her best to ensure this person was moving out and to provide the safe, clean, smoke-free environment she had promised and he had contracted. But by mid-December when he came back to Brussels, nothing had changed and she admitted she had not sent any written notice to D. and she had just asked his father to help him move out and had a conversation with D. explaining he "needed to look for another place asap".   

While I understand her desire to help a fellow human being in dire straits, we, S. and I, had no obligations towards her tenant D. We are not social workers and S just wanted to go over his business without all this trouble. He was a paying tenant and I was his guest, who stayed there with the acknowledgment and consent of his landlady. She had then the obligation to provide a safe, clean, healthy environment for the people under her roof, who are basically customers.

She refused to call the police when it was needed in at least two occasions, (S, the other female tenant and eventually I had gone down to protect her from D's attacks while in the kitchen). She seemed nonchalant and oblivious to the risks and unconcerned about the effects of this behavior on the other inhabitants of the house.

"I don't worry too much -she had said to me one day- because I just go to my part of the house and lock myself there and don't have to deal with D."  "But what with the rest of the tenants"? I had asked her, and she just replied: "what can I do?"

In January she had again assured S. (and told me several times)  that "D will hopefully be leaving by the end of January", but she had still not sent him any written notices or talked to the social worker, or the authorities as per her account. When S. on the day of the incident, asked her again in writing to confirm that D. was leaving, she did not reply. 

It was mid-January and S and I did not feel at all safe staying there and S.'s bronchitis was really bad, so the next day after the latest incident, we went searching for a new place where S. could stay until at least the end of January, pending this man move from the house.  We moved part of S's things out on Thursday night (the violent incident was on Wednesday)  We incurred on many expenses, including a new rental fee and deposit for a month (it was not possible to find a place where S. could live and work for a shorter period of time on such short notice) and transportation.

When the landlady could still not give a positive, certain answer as to this tenant moving out by the end of January, S. decided not to waste more time and find a permanent solution, moving out for good. He sent the landlady an email informing her of his decision and explaining how unsafe, unwelcomed and uncomfortable he felt at this point and how this was hindering his job. He was complying with notifying her in writing of his desire to rescind the contract, he explained he was moving out against his will and because he had not been offered any solution and wanted his deposit back. He had told her already on several occasions how he felt and sent her an email clearly stating his desire to move out of the house if no serious solution was provided to which she had not replied on writing.

Just AFTER he signed a contract for a month in this other place and informed her he desired to move out for good and rescind the contract, she sent an email saying she HAD TOLD HIM ALREADY THAT D. WAS ABSOLUTELY MOVING OUT ON JANUARY 30TH. But this is simply not true. She could not give a clear answer before S. decided to sign a new contract and we felt that she was trying to find S. responsible for leaving the house before the end of his contract.

She then sent an email to S. saying his behavior was odd, first telling her he was moving out just for a month and then for good. She still seemed completely oblivious to the violence and danger posed by her tenant, despite having sent an earlier email apologizing for what we had had to go through.

She never replied to S.'s request for reimbursement of the rent of the month of January and his deposit. NOT EVEN ONCE SHE ADDRESSED THE ISSUE. And S. being busy and not able to fully communicate in French, isn't sure how to go about this.  (BTW, the landlady is British, she speaks both French and English well, but S. cannot communicate with the authorities well and doesn't know where to begin)

The only thing the landlady was kin to request from S. was that he "found her a replacement tenant, perhaps among his peers at the university, since he had signed a contract until ends of June"  I feel really upset by the contradiction between her apparent humane concern for the tenant who caused all this stress and fear while simultaneously showing no empathy or responsibility towards S. or even awareness of danger to herself.  To me, it started to feel as if all she cared about was the money.

The other female tenant, who seemed to have some rapport with D., was also very distressed at the whole situation (she saw the violence in the kitchen) and she offered to help D. to find another place to live and also said to us she could act as a witness if necessary. (she was in her room when D threatened my life in the bathroom and she speaks French very well)

Though we believe S. deserves to be reimbursed the full deposit (we left the room in impeccable conditions when we left, took pictures of it and all) plus at least the pro-rated rent for the month of January (18 days, if I remember correctly) plus the expenses incurred on by the new rent for a month and the transportation, at this point he just wants the pro-rated amount for January and the full deposit. I cannot see how it could be legal for her to keep it. There were absolutely no damages in her room and she was free to rent it out again upon S's permanent departure, of which he notified her as soon as he was aware of it himself. (I think that Sunday or Monday) 

COULD YOU PLEASE GIVE US ANY INSIGHT ON THIS MATTER? Do you know where we can go for help in Brussels? I'm back here now and I want to help S. retrieve what I believe he is entitled to by law, as there was a clear breach of contract on the part of this landlady and he tried to solve this issue in a civil, even friendly manner to no avail.

Can this landlady not provide what she ought to by contract, contribute to all this stress and still keep the money of a deposit which is handed over with a very different purpose?

In good faith S. gave her the benefit of the doubt and tried to solve this in conversation at first, informing her of his desire to rescind the contract if a solution was not granted for months.

He made his desire patent on writing once things had escalated to an unsustainable high and then again, once he left the dangerous situation when not being provided with a better solution.

He lost money and valuable time, underwent health issues and stress at a time he had very important deadlines. My stay with him in Brussels was also ruined.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for reading this far and for any feedback you can give me as to where I can go for help and what our rights are.

Elle.