The landlord is keeping the deposit: how to get it back

A rental deposit is not the landlord's money and never becomes it by default. It is most often placed in a blocked account in the tenant's name; a bank guarantee or a guarantee given by a third party are lawful forms too, and which one applies is in the lease. Whatever the form, the deposit is released by a written agreement between the two parties or by a court order, and by nothing else. That single fact settles a surprising number of arguments.

The inventory is the case

Almost every deposit dispute turns on one document: the entry inventory drawn up when the tenant moved in. Compared with the exit inventory, it is what shows whether a mark on a wall was already there. Where there is a detailed entry inventory, the dispute usually resolves itself in an afternoon. Where there is none, the law's starting point is far more favourable to the tenant, because the landlord has nothing to compare the exit state against.

Photographs with a visible date help, but a signed inventory is the document that carries weight.

Wear is not damage

Ordinary ageing is the landlord's cost, not the tenant's: paint that has dulled over years, a carpet worn along the route people walk, fittings that have reached the end of their life. Damage is something that was done — a burn, a broken pane, a hole. And even for real damage, the amount is the repair cost less depreciation for the years the item had already lived, not the price of a new one.

What to do, in order

Ask in writing for the deposit to be released, with a short deadline, and say what you propose for any point that is genuinely in dispute. If part of the sum is not contested, ask for that part to be released now; a landlord who refuses to release an undisputed part is on weak ground.

If that fails, the route is the justice of the peace. Rental disputes go there by default, the procedure is designed to be accessible, and it is cheap by the standards of litigation. You can request a free conciliation hearing first, which often produces an agreement on the day.

When a lawyer is worth it

For a deposit of a few hundred euros, one consultation to check your position is often the right amount of help. For larger sums, disputed repairs, or a landlord who has already emptied the account, take the file — lease, both inventories, photographs, correspondence — to a practice that does rental work.

This page is general information about how these matters usually work in Belgium. It is not legal advice about your own case, and only a lawyer who has read your documents can give you that.