A co-living lease in Wallonia is a single lease signed by several tenants sharing one home, with joint and several liability for rent and charges. It is governed by the decree of 15 March 2018 and must be backed by a mandatory co-living pact that organises life between the co-tenants.
The co-living lease (bail de colocation) was formalised by the decree of 15 March 2018 to give a legal frame to shared housing that used to be improvised (logement.wallonie.be, 2018). Instead of separate contracts, one lease binds the landlord to all the co-tenants at once, and they share the property as their main residence.
Its defining feature is joint and several liability (la solidarite). The landlord can claim the whole rent and all the charges from any single co-tenant, who must then settle up with the others (Articles 65 to 73, decree of 15 March 2018). For the landlord this is powerful security; for tenants it means each is exposed to the others’ defaults, which is exactly why the law pairs the lease with a mandatory internal agreement.
That agreement is the co-living pact, which the co-tenants must sign under Article 72 of the decree (logement.wallonie.be, 2018). It organises how rent and charges are split, how a departing co-tenant is replaced and how the deposit is handled between them. A co-tenant who wants to leave gives three months notice, and can be released cleanly if they find a replacement approved by the landlord and the remaining tenants; otherwise they owe the others compensation.
The counter-intuitive part is that co-living is not a looser arrangement than a normal lease, it is a tighter one. The solidarity clause makes the group collectively responsible, and the mandatory pact turns informal house rules into an enforceable document. Brussels and Flanders regulate shared living differently, so a Walloon co-living lease should not be copied across regional lines.
At a glance
- Structure: one lease signed by all co-tenants with the landlord
- Legal basis: decree of 15 March 2018, Articles 65 to 73
- Liability: joint and several for rent and charges
- Mandatory co-living pact: required under Article 72
- Departing co-tenant: three months notice
- Clean exit: approved replacement releases the leaver
- No replacement: leaver owes compensation to the others
- Main residence: the property is the co-tenants’ principal home