On 1 May 2025, Article 224/1 of the Brussels Housing Code entered into force. It is now prohibited for a landlord to offer an "abusive rent", and if they do so, the tenant may request a revision of the rent.
An abusive rent is one that "exceeds its reference rent by twenty per cent. This presumption may be rebutted where it is established that the difference between the rent charged and the reference rent is justified by substantial comfort features intrinsic to the dwelling or to its environment", or one that "does not exceed its reference rent by twenty per cent but displays substantial quality defects intrinsic to the dwelling or to its environment" (Article 224 of the Brussels Housing Code).
The reference rent, as defined in Article 2, 37°, of the Brussels Housing Code, can be calculated using a regional tool: https://loyers.brussels/; although it is not binding, it must nevertheless be mentioned in the residential lease (Article 218 of the Brussels Housing Code).
The parliamentary records of the Ordinance of 28 October 2021 establishing a joint rental committee and combating abusive rents set out a non-exhaustive list of substantial comfort features: "four-sided villa", "townhouse", "fireplace", "high-end kitchen", "abundance of green spaces", "exceptional quiet", etc. The substantial intrinsic quality defects, for their part, are laid down by the Decree of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region of 25 January 2024 establishing the list of substantial intrinsic quality defects referred to in Article 107/2 of the Brussels Housing Code. The parliamentary records of the aforementioned ordinance also give examples of these: "absence of an individual electricity meter", "a single cramped shower room (instead of a bathroom)", "considerable noise pollution", "frequent or permanent foul odours", etc. It is on the basis of these criteria that the joint rental committee (hereinafter "CPL"), established in December 2021 and governed by Articles 107/1 to 107/6 of the Brussels Housing Code, can assess whether rents are fair. This body, on which representatives of landlords and tenants sit, issues non-binding opinions, which can be consulted at https://be.brussels/fr/logement/location/bail-dhabitation/commission-paritaire-locative.
The CPL may be referred a matter "by any interested person and by the court before which an application has been brought, in order to obtain an opinion on whether the rent is fair", and "delivers its opinion within two months of the lodging of the request". The court may therefore also seek the opinion of the CPL, whose mission is above all informative. This opinion, it should be recalled, is not binding.
Where the CPL considers that a revision of the rent could be justified, it systematically proposes an attempt at conciliation between the parties.
Finally, the parliamentary records of the aforementioned ordinance emphasise that "Recourse to the CPL is an option; making the CPL a mandatory step before judicial proceedings would only delay and complicate the procedure — it would become one step among others, leading to a loss of time and energy for everyone."
It should be noted that in certain Brussels neighbourhoods — including the European quarter — the reference rent is not available on the regional tool. It is therefore not possible to ascertain the reference rent for certain Brussels areas, which raises significant questions of equality and non-discrimination for both landlords and tenants.
The Brussels legislator has thus created a new institution, which is one more actor in the already complex relationship between landlords and tenants. It is not certain that the role of this committee will be well understood by tenants (in particular, it does not replace the court for all the enjoyment-related problems raised by a tenant that would, in their view, justify a reduction in the rent).
Excessive success would in all likelihood quickly lead to a backlog, and the mechanism would certainly benefit from being evaluated quickly and then regularly.
Do you have questions about leases in Brussels or about the joint rental committee?
Contact Laurent Delmotte or Bart Van Hyfte
