In Wallonia the tenant pays charges linked to use and consumption, such as heating, water, and a share of common-area upkeep, while the landlord pays owner costs like the building manager’s fee and insurance. The property tax (precompte immobilier) can never be charged to a main-residence tenant.
Charges (charges locatives) are the running costs of a rented home, and the decree of 15 March 2018 requires the lease to state them clearly (logement.wallonie.be, 2018). The guiding principle is who benefits: costs tied to the tenant’s occupation and consumption fall on the tenant, while costs tied to ownership fall on the landlord.
On the tenant’s side sit personal consumption (electricity, water, heating) and a share of maintaining common areas in a shared building, such as lift servicing, stairwell lighting and, where applicable, a portion of the concierge’s cost, plus use-related taxes like refuse collection (droitsquotidiens.be, 2026). On the landlord’s side sit ownership costs, notably the fee of the building manager or syndic and the building insurance (droitsquotidiens.be, 2026).
There is one hard prohibition. The property tax (precompte immobilier) can never be passed to a main-residence tenant, and a lease clause that tries to do so is unenforceable, even if the tenant signed it (droitsquotidiens.be, 2026). This is a frequent source of unlawful clauses, so it is worth checking any lease that mentions it.
Charges are billed in one of two ways, and the difference is decisive. A fixed lump sum (forfait) is a set monthly amount with no year-end reconciliation, while a provision is a monthly advance settled against actual costs through an annual statement (decompte) supported by receipts the tenant can demand. The counter-intuitive trap is the forfait: it feels simple, but neither party can later convert it or revise it without a judge’s intervention, so an ill-judged flat fee can lock in a loss for years. Brussels and Flanders regulate charges under their own codes, so the split can differ across regions.
At a glance
- Tenant pays: heating, water, electricity for their own use
- Tenant pays: share of common-area upkeep (lift, stairwell lighting)
- Tenant pays: use-related taxes such as refuse collection
- Landlord pays: building manager or syndic fee
- Landlord pays: building insurance
- Never the tenant: property tax (precompte immobilier) on a main residence
- Forfait: fixed monthly amount, no reconciliation, hard to change later
- Provision: monthly advance plus annual statement with receipts