It is their right (Privacy laws)

But you never filed a request to the Judge with this problem, insn't?
So you have finally accepted the situation and kept your dear tenants.

That was the statement my tenants told me hwne they wanted me to unblock rental guarentee early in July, when acounting was not done yet, agreeing to pay expert damage fee 54 euro":

"Rental guarantee should not be linked to common charge settlement.
They also said they needed money to lease anew apartment"

But as, a landlord, I was not sure if I would ever be able to pursue after them for pending arrears without something in my hand. The only hold for me was rental guarantee, especially they didn't even leave a forwarding address when they left. They even seem to fought with the expert for charging them 54 euros for not filling the 30 holes  they made to put the curtains. Such kind of people are they.

I see no intention at all from them settling common charges, if I have released the guarantee

At the end of the day, They have to pay overdue charges of 800 euro and a bank account for 1650 euro needs to be released by me.

The points I have in my favor if they go to a lawyer/judge are:

(1) They didn't leave me a forwarding address (had to find that from thier conciliation request)
(2) I have registered letter proof showing their absurd payment record, delay in paying rent or common charges. They were not dependable and stick to their commitments as per contract in term s of paying rent or common charges in time

The only point which may be against me are

(a) I had to buy a palette of  water softeners (40 bags) during their lease tenure. Reason to buy a palette of 40 bags was to let the delivery happen for an affordable price. In a sense, 20 bags or a palette costs the same for delivery. I am only a honorary syndic , doing it free of cost, saving all of sydnic fee, and I can't bring couple of bags every months for this small apartment complex. WE certainly have to buy and stock it to avoid the hassle of purchasing every month. Last similar purchase was couple of years ago by professional syndics.  We can only account this when we purchase it and can not carry forward accounting every year until we exhaust the salt.

(b)Being landlord and syndic, We don't bring external gardeners and pay more than 500 euro for cutting fences like professional syndics did to us before. We bought equipment ourselves and we cut fences/mow the lawn ourselves. 

But we also do spend some money once a while to plant some seasons plus perennials like wysteria, grapes, new fence (taxus Baccata)for the front garden etc) , to renovate the garden once we removed a bunch of dead bamboo plants.

I am worried they may dispute here saying it is landlord responsibilities., although we talked about this verbally during contract signing. They wanted to put a cap to 100 euros every year for garden maintenance but I didn't agree to it as it may go beyond if we need to cut overgrown trees at teh back garden.

So,yes, they may dispute to their part from 400 euro per person to say, 350 euro per person. This still can be sorted out amicably if they come for a meeting and not to jump every time opening a conciliation request or Copying a lawyer.

I have done my best and willing to listen and forego with some money fi I need to , provided if I could close this ASAP.

If they want to bring a lawyer to save 50 or 100 bucks for them, let them do

If I do anything wrong from landlord/sydnic perspective, please highlight to me

They don't care if some banks accept that or not...

Got it. I had that concern too. While providing appointments to unblock guarantee, I will specify following condition

Else, will unblock the rest of guarantee minus pending charges and damage charges as confirmed by expert

Usually, banks don't allow partial unblocking.

And partial unblocking is not a good option: once they have nothing tho gain, why should they help you in any way?

In French: "Tant qu'il n'y a pas d'accord sur tout, il n'y a d'accord sur rien"

(Till there is no agreement on everything, there is no agreement on anything)

Hope to sort it out soon. Also clarifying with them what they disagree and what exact documents they want.

Will send revised and final bill once I receive their side of story.Will reiterate again I am available on so and so data to unblock guarantee provided common charges and amounts due to me as written by expert are settled.

Else, will unblock the rest of guarantee minus pending charges and damage charges as confirmed by expert

I need further help to close on this one. As a syndic, I have given accounting as per act de base and accounting practice done by professional syndics so far.

As a new landlord, there are certain things I do not know how to deal with it.
For instance, my tenant stayed with me for only 10 months in the last financial year.That brings question how to split some common costs.

While signing the Lease Contract  we clarified to tenant how accounting works and he has signed the folloiwng in the contract

[chauffage]
There is no problem with chaffauge as we switched on heating on in November when tenant was already there. We switched of heating system before the teant left.
ISTA was anyway taking Calorimeter readings and it is purely based on consumption. SO, there is no issue splitting the costs here. It is simply based on consumption as detailed by ISTA

[common electricity cost]
(1) If common electricty cost is 120 euro(412/1000 of total cost) for whole financial year ,(say 10 euro per month for their apartment), since the tenant only stayed for 10 months, should I charge 100 euro for 10 months and I bear the 20 euro as landlord?

[water cost]
There is no passage meter, no way to practically find actual consumtion. We have been splitting water cost by quotite part for 30 years now.

This has been clarified to tenant on signing the contract and he has signed that he will pay 412/1000 parts as quote part as contract clause cited above

(2) Since there is no way to identify per apartment water consumption, should I simply charge tenants X amount as per quote part, no matter if they have lived for 10 months and not full year (the apartment was empty , nobody living for remaining two months)?

(3) For the sake o delivery by supplier,  We always buy one palette of water softener tablets, say 40 bags once in two years. ONly half of tablets purchased will be used in a year. How to charge the teant now and how much I need to bear teh cost as landlord?

[miscellaneous cost]
There were miscellaneous costs like maintenance & purchasing plants etc for the common garden. We all cut the fencing ourselves, mow the small lawn ourselves etc and we don't normally bring external gardener. Although not in writing cited above on lease, we have verbally confirmed at the time of siging lease that tenant will pay 412/1000 of such costs for which he agreed to it.

(4) Now, since the tenant only stayed for for 10 months, if garden cost per year for their apartment is 120 euro(412/1000 of total cost), should I only charge 100 euro, cost for 10 months and bear the remaining 20 euro myself, as landlord?

Also, the "girl"always CCes her lawyer (friend?), this is not the first time.

Why do you care?  I would not care about copy to whoever. It does not change anything: if she write to a lawyer, it doesn't change if you are right or wrong...

She just try to impress you (and apparently it works..) or to get reassured by the lawyer on the side.

While sending break-up of expenses/bill or if I have an option to confirm their appointment, I will make sure to explain conditions for unblocking the guarantee

Also, the "girl"always CCes her lawyer (friend?), this is not the first time.
Few months ago she did the same complaining teh noise of door open/close for whcih I didn't respond at all

Also, they had a deadline to pay outstanding charges by 31st. So no wonder they want to buy time on 30th asking for more info.

Thanks you all so much

As for the letter you want to send to your tenants, I would link the unblocking to the fact that they agree to pay the extracharges.

I would certainly NEVER unblock the warranty before everything is solved. The guys in front are eager to get their money? They can get it by signing the final agreement and "solde de tout compte".

Otherwhise, you will never get your money with such zozo.

So, don't write that you can unblock their warranty. You MUST explain the conditions.

They have a lawyer? So what? It's only conciliation. And you don't show any bad faith.

If they have a lawyer, take also one.

Never respond yourself to a lawyer!

If you don't know the Belgian laws on renting by heart, and don't have a good command of the official languages in Brussels-Capital (French-Dutch), it would be silly to go alone in front of any Judge.

Never respond yourself to a lawyer!

If you don't know the Belgian laws on renting by heart, and don't have a good command of the official languages in Brussels-Capital (French-Dutch), it would be silly to go alone in front of any Judge.

# I will not complicate things

# I will not impose conditions. If they want break-up by email, I will provide one. If they ask for a scanned copy of all bills by email, I will provide one

# I do not think I am obliged to "reply all" to a Brussels lawyer who is in carbon copy, as I don't know him/her and do not a see a reason how they get engaged.(I inly know the other parti is a lawyer as per emailATsygmavocat.be)

# With respect to accounting sent, I did not mean one agrees to pay it. The "girl" accepted the letter. She is the one who is asking for break-up, CCing a lawyer.THis is not the first time she CCed  a lawyer on email for any communication with me. The "boy" didn't accept the copy of the annual accounting yet tilldate, still awaiting pickup in bpost, do not know if one or both changed their address with commune as I still receive letters for them at our place.

# The communication we had so far was:
(1)The "girl" met me in July asking me to unblock rental guarantee. I said  I will do so once accounting is settled. They said rental guarantee has noting to do with common charges and filing "conciliation request" the same day.
(2)I sent accounting mid-augsut
(3) I send a letter today giving them appointment to unblock gaurentee
(4) Would respond to them next week providing copy of bills by emails
(5) !!!I am a dilemma whether to for conciliation or Not!!!

#For the conciliation,  I still hesitate to go in front of the judge for the simple reason that I do not speak any of the official languages. Their attitude changed recently that they want to speak to me in local language only. I do not how can i defend myself. Yes , tehr eis a solution, I need to find a translator. But going for consiliation, is it required now. The reason sought for concilation was :

Here is the letter I *intend to send  today* (end august), both in English and French (Google translate)

Honestly, I the reason they quoted for conciliation is not true. I only said I will sign once we settle the bill. Now that we have finished accounting & I have given them appointment to unblock the rental guarantee, I do not see a reason to jump through hoofs , be present for conciliation, which becomes ground for discussing expenses

So, in a way, the registered letetr I am sending today is the response to their written conciliation request which came from Justice de paix.

I will also respond to to email with break-up and scanned copy of bills.

[color=#0000E0]The last question I would like to get an answer before Justice de paix closes for today is:[/couleur]

[color=#A00000]Given the situation, what is the recommendation from you folks?

-Go for the conciliation and sort it out ( Need to bear consequences at work,
jumping middle of week from that country, associated travel expenses etc)
-Or just send registered letter above, give appointment  for canceling guarentee as cited above and keep responding in each channel, letter to letter, email to email?
[/couleur]

[color=#0000C0]Based on your answer
(a) I will send the letter/inform justice de paix about cancelation of conciliation by today or
(b)  simply don't send above letter and go for conciliation next week
[/couleur]