The 9-year lease is the default main-residence lease in Wallonia. The tenant can leave at any time with three months notice, paying a decreasing indemnity if they leave in the first three years, while the landlord can only end it early on specific grounds with six months notice.
When a Walloon main-residence lease does not state a shorter or longer term, it is deemed to last nine years under the decree of 15 March 2018 (logement.wallonie.be, 2018). This is the reference contract, built to give tenants stability while leaving landlords defined exit points.
The tenant holds broad freedom to leave. They may terminate at any moment with three months notice. If they do so during the first triennium, they owe an indemnity that decreases with time: three months rent in year one, two months in year two and one month in year three (Article 55, decree of 15 March 2018). After the third year, a tenant leaving with three months notice owes nothing.
The landlord’s exits are structured around three-year milestones. At the end of the first or second triennium the landlord can end the lease to occupy the property personally (or via close family) with six months notice, or to carry out major works, or without a stated motive but then owing a compensation of nine or six months rent respectively (Article 55, decree of 15 March 2018). At the nine-year term, either party may end the lease with six months notice; if no one does, it rolls over for successive three-year periods.
The counter-intuitive detail is the asymmetry. A nine-year lease sounds like a nine-year commitment for the tenant, yet the tenant can walk after three months while the landlord is largely locked in. This is deliberate tenant protection, and it differs from Brussels and Flanders, which set their own indemnity scales and grounds within their regional codes.
At a glance
- Default duration: nine years for a main residence
- Tenant notice: three months, at any time
- Tenant indemnity (first triennium): 3 months rent in year 1, 2 in year 2, 1 in year 3
- Tenant after year 3: three months notice, no indemnity
- Landlord for personal occupation: six months notice, end of a triennium
- Landlord for major works: allowed at the end of a triennium, conditions apply
- Landlord without motive: end of 1st or 2nd triennium, indemnity of 9 or 6 months rent
- At 9-year term: six months notice by either party, else renews for 3-year periods