How the rental deposit works in Flanders
Published
Under the Flemish Residential Lease Decree you may ask for a deposit of at most three months’ rent, and the money never sits on your account. The tenant chooses one of the four forms the decree allows: an individualised bank account in their own name, financial security at a financial institution, a bank guarantee through the municipal welfare office (OCMW) or, with your consent, a personal guarantor. The forms cannot be combined. At the end of the lease the deposit is released only with a document signed by both parties, or otherwise by a decision of the justice of the peace. If you hold the deposit back without grounds, you owe the tenant the average market interest on that amount.
Release and deductions
The release is an agreement, not a refund. Whatever you keep back has to be proven: damage shown by the difference between the move-in and move-out inventories, unpaid rent or charges, costs the contract puts on the tenant. Without a move-in inventory the tenant is presumed to have received the property in the state they leave it in; you can rebut that presumption, but then you have to prove the damage with other evidence, which makes a deduction much harder. If you agree, you both sign the release for the account, the financial security or the OCMW guarantee, on the form the bank or institution provides; a personal guarantee simply ends once the tenant has met the obligations it covered. If you do not agree, the justice of the peace decides.
Where UnitDesk helps
In UnitDesk you record the deposit amount on the lease, even though the money never sits on your account. The deposit is its own payment type, separate from monthly rent, so it never mixes into arrears. At the end you record what is deducted, with a reason such as damage or unpaid rent, and what is released. The list of ended leases shows which deposits still need settling, until the amount reaches zero. UnitDesk does not manage the tenant’s account and does not collect the deposit; it tracks what was agreed, deducted and released per lease.