Recent case law on housing quality: landlord must compensate tenant for missed rent subsidy

We would like to draw your attention to a particularly relevant research report by Steunpunt Wonen 'Housing Quality: a case law analysis'. The report brings together the conclusions of dozens of recent judgments and rulings on housing quality standards. It vividly illustrates the serious risks associated with defects, both through the application of the nullity sanction and in terms of liability. This week: case law where the landlord must compensate the tenant for missing the rent subsidy due to quality defects.

In Flanders, there are two forms of financial rental support: the rent subsidy and the rent premium. The rent subsidy is intended for tenants with low incomes who move to an affordable home that meets quality standards. The rent premium is aimed at candidate tenants who have been waiting for social housing for at least four years and meanwhile live on the private rental market.

For both the rent premium and the rent subsidy, these are not paid when the rental property is unsuitable or uninhabitable. For the rent subsidy, it is even required that compliance is evident from a compliance investigation.

The Steunpunt research report points to a number of judgments where defects were found during that compliance investigation. For example, there is the judgment of the peace court of Kontich of May 16, 2023, where the rental property was declared unsuitable, causing the tenant to miss the rent subsidy. In the judgment of the peace court of Antwerpen (II) of December 1, 2022, the rent subsidy was suspended for a certain period due to non-compliance of the rental property.

In these rulings, the landlord was held responsible for this and ordered to compensate the tenant for the missed rent subsidy.

We reproduce the case law syntheses below literally from the report with slight editorial adjustments.

**Vred. Kontich 16 mei 2023**

**Vred. Antwerpen (II) 1 december 2022**

**Vred. Antwerpen (II) 30 juni 2022 & Rb. Antwerpen (afd. Antwerpen) 26 juni 2023**

Source: De Raeymaecker, B., & Carette, N. (2024). Woningkwaliteit. Een rechtspraakanalyse. Leuven: Steunpunt Wonen, pp. 55 e.v. Available at https://steunpuntwonen.be/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/WP04_Woningkwaliteit.pdf.