Co-ownership in Belgium: one law, different steps depending on the region

You are looking for an answer for your building, and the pages you find talk sometimes about Flanders, sometimes about Brussels, occasionally about the Netherlands. Two different questions are getting mixed up: what the law requires of every Belgian co-ownership, and what depends on where the building stands.

Let us say it from the outset, because it saves hours of searching: the co-ownership regime does not change from one region to another. It is set out in the Civil Code, Book 3 "Property", Articles 3.78 to 3.100, and the Civil Code is a federal law. Three apartments in Ghent and two hundred in Ixelles fall under the same text, with the same majorities, the same deadlines and the same bodies. What varies are the matters the regions control that affect the building.

This part of the site brings those local differences together: region by region, then city by city where the apartment stock raises particular questions.

How far is the law the same everywhere?

As far as almost everything that keeps the building running. Forced co-ownershipGlossaryForm of co-ownership in which property must remain undivided because of its function or purpose, such as the common parts of an apartment building. Such property can only be divided with the agreement of all co-owners. See the glossary exists as soon as a building is divided into unitsGlossaryComponent of the co-ownership made up of a private part and a share in the common parts. An apartment with its cellar may form a single unit or two separate units, depending on the deed of division. See the glossary each comprising a private part and a share in common elements. From then on, the owners' association (VME/ACP), the general meeting (GM), the property manager (syndic), the accounts auditor and the voting rules follow the same text throughout the country. These provisions are mandatory: a clause in the articles that contradicts the law is automatically replaced by the legal rule (Art. 3.100). The section on co-ownership law sets out this hierarchy between the law, the articles and the house rules, and the full text is published by eJustice, in Dutch.

What adjusts the obligations is therefore not the region but the size of the building. Below twenty units, cellars, garages and parking spaces not counted, the association can keep simplified accountsGlossaryAccounting allowed in co-ownerships with fewer than twenty units, excluding cellars, garages and parking spaces. At a minimum it shows income and expenditure, cash position, the working capital and reserve funds, and the co-owners' receivables and debts. See the glossary (Art. 3.89, § 5). From twenty units, counted the same way, a co-ownership council becomes compulsory (Art. 3.90). A small building in Antwerp and a small building in Brussels are in the same position; a small and a large building in Brussels are not.

Three regional matters that affect your building

The first is spatial planning. Replacing the façade windows, installing solar panels, enclosing a balcony: in Flanders you must in principle first apply for an environmental permit (omgevingsvergunning), unless an exemption applies, through the Omgevingsloket, and the competent authority may be the municipality, the province or the Flemish Region. In Brussels, any permit falls under the Brussels Spatial Planning Code. Municipalities add their own regulations. The syndic cannot answer in the municipality's place, yet it is the municipality you need to consult before pricing the project.

The second is energy performance. The EPC is a regional matter, and its rules are not the same on both sides of the regional border. In Flanders, an apartment building with at least two residential units needs an EPC for the common parts, which the syndic has drawn up for the association by a type A energy assessor; its data is automatically used for the EPCs of the apartments, and it remains valid for ten years, or less if the collective installations change or at least 15% of the building envelope is replaced. The EPC of the apartment itself, compulsory on a sale, is a matter for the owner of the unit. In the Brussels-Capital Region, the EPB certificate is compulsory to sell or let an individual dwelling of at least 18 m², must be drawn up before the property goes on the market by a certifier approved by Brussels Environment, and remains valid for ten years. There too, the owner of the unit is responsible, not the association, but the certifier will ask the syndic for any building documents he is missing.

The third is money for renovation. The schemes have different names, Mijn VerbouwPremie in Flanders, Renolution in Brussels, and their amounts and deadlines change with each new scheme. For works on the common parts, the syndic files the application for the basic grant on behalf of the association, which receives the grant and divides it among the owners according to their shares. Our advice: have the status of the current scheme checked before putting the project to the vote, not after. The page energy renovation and grants explains how to align a project's timetable with that of the regional renovation grants.

Depending on the address, there is also the water supplier and therefore the collective bill, municipal housing quality regulations, and the measures the fire service can impose on an existing building after an inspection. On that last point, see the page fire safety.

Brussels, Flanders, Antwerp or Ghent: where to start

If your building is in Brussels, the page co-ownership in Brussels brings together the regional steps, the obligations specific to Brussels buildings and the public services that support co-ownerships free of charge. For a building in Flanders, the regional rules for co-ownership in Flanders are covered on this page and in the topic pages.

At city level, the age of the buildings and the average size of apartment blocks change the priorities. For co-ownership in Antwerp and co-ownership in Ghent, the Flemish rules apply, and the city may have stricter local rules for certain works: check with the city before deciding anything.

For everything else, which is to say most of what keeps a syndic busy, the address plays no part. Start again from the section day-to-day living or, if the question is about the accounts, from the section co-ownership service charges.