# Brussels landlord refuses to fix things



## marshmellove (Feb 28, 2016)

Hello dear all,

We have this 2 bedroom flat for 900 Euros on a 1 year lease. The room heater in one of the bedrooms had a very old knob to turn the heat on and off. The rest of the house has normal, functioning knobs on heaters. Around 6 weeks ago we had guests who stayed in our second bedroom so my husband tried to rotate the old style knob, in doing so it broke. 

He is a good handyman but despite his efforts and experience, he couldn't fix it. We informed our landlord about the same. Unfortunately the knob was not fully turned off when it broke so the heat was on the whole time (how costly!).

The landlord who wants to sell this house came around 4 weeks after we informed her, actually to take pictures of this house because she wants to sell it. She brought in a handyman to look at this problem. He inspected it and said that this problem gets fixed by closing the central heating of the building and then working on the heater. This response annoys our landlord who declares it is too much work and she leaves.

We try to contact our building upkeep guys (a company called Sodeximo is handling this) to fix it since the landlord refused to. Sodeximo guys told us that they had a conversation with our landlord and that this has to be fixed between us and the landlord and that they cant help it. 

What can we do now? Our landlord simply refuses to fix the knob of this heater which is constantly 'on' costing us a lot in heating charges (now 6 weeks plus). She refuses to let Sodeximo fix it for us. 

In 3 months our contract will end. If the heater is still broken then, the landlord can charge us to fix it along with other costs. We don't mind paying for it (after all my husband did break it) but we would like to do it well within our contract also because the heating bill will be enormous if this doesn't get fixed. 

What is our legal or otherwise recourse here? What should our next step be? Can a landlord refuse to get something like this fixed? She isn't even talking costs or anything with us, she just refuses to have it fixed.

Please help me everyone. I want to do the right thing, it can involve us paying for what's broken, no issues but I'd like to return this apartment in the same condition as it was given to us. Thank you.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

In Belgium unless the repair is needed for the structure of the house then it is up to the tenants to fix it.

We had a nightmare of a thieving landlord when we lived there and there is nothing you can do counter their claims so I would fix it and hope like anything you don't get slammed with a bill stretching to thousands.


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## marshmellove (Feb 28, 2016)

Hi, we would love to get this thing repaired and pay for it. My husband got a heating repair guy to come and take a look at it, he said that to repair the knob the central heating will have to be closed. Now that can only be done in our building by Sodeximo who wouldn't do it without our landlord's permission. Our landlord is not giving the permission. 

What can we do when a repair requires landlord's consent and she is withholding it (likely to get money from us when the contract ends)?


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Maybe you can contact the Brussels tennants association explaining the situation Accueil

They should be able to advise you at the least and maybe even help if needed.


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