Help! New house in Brussels

[rushingrachel]

Hi all. Sadly I was made redundant yesterday. Big shock as have been working really hard and everyone seemed happy with my work. Our current house is very much too expensive on 1 salary and we need to downgrade. I would like something in Auderghem or WSP (liked the Stockel area recently on the cinema trip) max eur 1700 pref with 4 bedrooms. If any of you see such a thing that looks pleasant on your rounds could you let me know? I've had a look on immoweb today and there doesn't seem that much in that price bracket but never know what will come up I guess. We need to move in December so have a bit of time. I need to channel my energies into a move as I'm really depressed!

[natation]

hi there
I am very very sorry to hear about your job - hubby will have redundancy over his head for the next 2 years and living with it is not easy.

Our 4 bed house on rue au bois was over our limit and we pay 1500 euro per month, but it is written in that the rent in UNindexed ie cannot go up at all in the next 9 years. It did take us 4 months of looking to get such a bug place at a decent price, but we tried and failed to rent 3 3 bed houses at 1200 per month and 1 4 bed house at 1400 per month, all in the Stockel area - so you should get within your budget. For Stockel,set immoweb at 1150, 1950, 1200 and 1970 (all 4 post codes cover Stockel), 3 beds and 1900 per month, as you should be able to knock off 10% of many prices showing on immoweb, I say 3 beds because many of the houses have offices which can be used as a 4th bedroom. I'll start looking now. I can already think of one in Stockel I saw on Immoweb yesterday well within budget. It's a renters market, property is shfting pretty slowly in Stockel at the moment. Good luck. I also have a friend who has more time than me to look daily on immoweb and she was superb at finding adverts for me that I had missed.

[AlpinePony]

Beware your contract! 3 months penalty plus 3 months notice if you're breaking in the first year. Then what about the survey? :(

You will of course need to find 2 months up front deposit for new place.

Good luck, scary times.

[Longtime]

rushingrachel, so sorry to hear this. I will keep a look out in Auderghem and on the route to school through Woluwe St Pierre.

[Longtime]

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3341584&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

[Longtime]

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3333645&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

[natation]

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3340933&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1
Think this house in in Stockel, possibly rue Longue, it has just changed agent

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3280411&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1
this is just about Stockel, between Amitiés 39 tram stop and Kraainem metro stop.

We learned a lot in our recent move about what to look for in another house - we looked for houses with modern double glazing, a boiler which wasn't 20 years old, most importantly the landlord/lady!!! I cannot stress enough the importance of choosing the landlord as well as the house.

I can highly recommend the expert our landlord appointed for our exit inspection - she was abosolutely impartial and impressed me that she kept telling the landlord to shut, stop lying and be reasonable - landlord was very unhappy not to get no more than 1/3 of his 2 months security deposit as his "compensation", I am certain he was expecting to get to keep all of it and more.

Do take note that a registered letter will need to go to your landlord dated saturday 1st October, notice is always 1st of month, so even if you contract ends 15th of month for example, you need to count from the following 1st for notice period.

[natation]

Mmmm just looked at photos of first house, can see why it is so cheap actually, needs some work doing to it, but if you did something like this up yourself, it would be a bargain, would knock even more off price, doubt it will go quickly.

[natation]

www.immoweb.be/en/myselect.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3344289&xquerynumber=1
This one says near Pl Dumon, sometimes "near" is really stretched, but W-O starts about 300m from Pl Dumon which is the heart of Stockel.

[natation]

www.immoweb.be/en/myselect.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3348184&xquerynumber=1
Another one which has appeared on Immoweb in Stockel for 1500 euro

[natation]

PS that house that Longtime posted is with Sorimo. Having dealt with most of the estate agents which have houses in WSP in the last few months, I must say one of the most honest and helpful was Sorimo - Candice was just great, fingers crossed for you.

[rushingrachel]

Thanks so much. Been to a wedding in Ireland to cheer ourselves up this we but now ready to commence the search. Have 1 apptmt already and will try to line up a couple of others tomorrow. Would be so grateful if you would keep the recommendations coming! What a rubbish situation!

[natation]

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.estate.cfm?idbien=3341789&ongletactif=2&jpgnameinp=3341789_9.jpg&xincludedetail=2&xgallery=gallery&mycurrent_section=Rent&xbg=N#onglet

Wanted to see this house when looking for ourselves but it came off the market - reading into this that it has undergone renovations and may not look entirely like in the photos now - 3 single bedrooms, 1 double bedroom, loft 4th bedroom or office. This could be as cheap as you are going to get for this area. I'm pretty sure this really is close to Place Dumon, not just the agency exaggerating. I found the agent Bridge one of the better ones, their rental agent speaks English, very helpful and honest (for an estate agent).

[Longtime]

RR, let me know if you need any help in any way (looking after ds's or something).

[natation]

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3347814&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1
Near Beaulieu metro, looks very nice on the photos.

[natation]

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3305276&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1
Think this is Square de l'Europe near Pétillon metro.

[Portofino]

This one is probably in the wrong place for you, but is on the lovely street where I live .

Close to restaurants and public transport, it is lovely and quiet and all the kids play outside together in the cul de sac. We even have an annual street party. All the french speaking children in the street go to school in WSP - apart from mine....

[rushingrachel]

Wow, it brings tears to the eyes how much more you can get if you just go a bit further out. But unfortunately that has already rented, I rang the agent.

Been on first visit this morning and have 4 more lined up. I'm working on it. Natation I don't know if you found this but when downsizing in price you're downsizing on size but almost always it seems the places are more tatty around the edges or involve some grey paintwork or scummy carpets or something. Our current place is very bright and light in comparison. This is all a bit miserable but I'm trying to be positive about it. And I took my lovely mum on the first visit and she was so trying to be positive for me too and saying in an all upbeat stiff upper lip way "we have to imagine it without furniture in" and "your dad could come round and give the garden the once over" and etc etc. I think now I'm a mum too I appreciate all the more how much they do for me and how many years they've been doing it and how it's their reflex almost to try to jump in and help at times like this.

Also appreciate you guys and the offers of help etc. You forget sometimes just how nice people can be! So lots of thanks and keep the possibilities coming ... my energy for visits is not dwindling.

[Portofino]

WSP

Sterrebeek

Kraainem

W-O

[natation]

Which one did you see? I only found one house woefully overvalued and in a tatty state, one which was a bit worn around the edges but not too bad, the rest were in pretty good condition and nearly all re-decorated. I'd aim for 10 euro per m2, so 150m2 house at 1500 euro, 100m2 house at 1000 euro, that's for WSP. We saw probably over 20 houses / apartments over 4 months. That first house I posted is one which is under 10 euro per m2 so I would expect that one to be a bit so-so but hopefully the exception.

[rushingrachel]

Saw a LOVELY property last night (one of the Auderghem ones that Longtime posted), even rushed my husband around to see it in the evening as he's gone to the US this morning. Issue now is that because my husband is an independent lawyer and has an SPRL we have to have its registered office at our home. The landlady seemed particularly averse to such arrangements yesterday and I fear we'll lose it as a result. We always have this problem and normally it is resolvable if the landlord speaks to our accountant but this one didn't seem even to want to have to go there. So I am doubly depressed because I really thought I'd found something. And baby has come up in spots over night. Grrrrrrrrr, never rains but it pours!! Going back this pm to see if I can negotiate with the landlady.

[Longtime]

Oh rushing, I hope you don't lose it! It would be nice to keep you in Auderghem :). Seriously though, can't you get the accountant to send you an e-mail you can print out and give to the landlady if she won't speak to him?

[natation]

Does the SPRL status mean that part of the house gets designated "business" and therefore tax is payable on that part of the rent? It might be the reason the landlord does not wish this complication. If there are no practical implications like this, well sorry to put a dampener on things, but when a landlord is difficult at the beginning, it might mean trouble to come. That's sounds terrible, just we tried to rent 4 other properties, 1 we actually let go because the potential landlord was adamant he would only offer us a fixed contract, we could not accept it, we spent 3 hours in negotiations trying to reason, his wife said yes, he said no and would not justify why, we walked away very upset, as we really wanted the house, but could not take the risk of a contract which is impossible to break but even more fundamentally a landlord who was difficult at the beginning. We have just moved house where the landlord made our life miserable for the last month..... we were exceptionally understanding when he decided to let himself into the house every day, including weekends, without permission, to do DIY... then on inspection day, lied to the "expert", accused us of breaking things his cowboy builders had in fact broke. We have miraculously now got a house which was not first choice but so far the landlord is simply WONDERFUL, we chose the landlord and then the house.

Best of luck, you will find something out there, even if it is not the first place. I am going to search out the details of the "expert" now who kindly saved us loads of euro on our exit inspection, ironically our crap ex-landlord chose her!

[rushingrachel]

I don't know exactly what the objection was ... as I understand it the way our accountant sets it up there should be no taxable consequences for the landlord because the rental contract will be in my name only. Every time we rent we have this issue and it has been sorted on 2 occasions so I am still hopeful. On the accountant's instructions I have taken the place anyway, paid 2 weeks rent as a "caution" and the landlady has taken the property off the market so at least she's not seeing other people. According to the accountant the issue will only crop up again if there are certain provisions in the contract and then we will have to negotiate. To be honest I quite understand. It's a lovely place and probably underpriced for the condition it is in and she had only had it on the market a couple of days. So if I were her and had met my husband blithering on about companies and mise a disposition etc I think I would also have said "look, don't want the bother". On the other hand I really want the place so have gone ahead anyway on the accountant's instructions and my husband will have to sort it out when he gets back from the US if sorting is needed.

Longtime it is the place that you found advertised near Beaulieu metro which I think probably means we would be nearer to you if anything. Is smaller than our current place but a bit of sorting out would do us good.

DV it will all work out. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

[rushingrachel]

By the way, my poor little baby has got German measles. He's a mess of spots!! I don't know what else this month holds but it's been eventful!!

[Longtime]

:) and :(