BELFIUS rental guarantee comparison

Banque Belfius is a bancassurer with local roots throughout Belgium. Belfius Bank operates in three business areas in Belgium:

1. Retail and commercial banking
2. Financial services
3. Insurance.

Belfius Bank has been active in public sector financing for 150 years and in retail financing for 50 years. Belfius is a bank wholly owned by the Belgian state.

The rental guarantee was introduced to protect landlords from tenant default and the risks associated with renting. It is regulated by law, but not mandatory. It is required in most residential leases. To find out whether your rental lease is subject to a rental guarantee, simply read it and discover how the tenant’s commitments are guaranteed.

Rent law provides that the tenant’s guarantee can be provided by blocking a sum of money in a dedicated bank account. The Belfius bank offers this service of opening an individualized bank account for the rental guarantee. The individual account opened with the Belfius bank to hold the amount of the guarantee is in the tenant’s name. It will be blocked until a prior agreement has been reached between the two parties to release the Belfius rental guarantee.

The funds blocked with the Belfius bank as part of the rental guarantee earn interest. These are accounted for annually.

Belfius bank customers can make an appointment online with their branch to open a rental guarantee account.

Banking establishments are increasingly required to comply with due diligence rules when opening a bank account, but this does not yet allow them to offer fully digital underwriting when opening a rental guarantee account.

The rental guarantee can be set up as early as the agency meeting, as long as both tenant and landlord are present and the funds to be blocked are paid directly. The agent will send the freeze certificate directly to the branch.

The difference between a rental bank guarantee and a rental guarantee is that when a rental guarantee is set up, money is actually deposited. With a bank guarantee, this is not the case, but the bank guarantees the rental guarantee. A bank guarantee is not free for the tenant. In addition, there are different regulations depending on the region where the rental property is located.

It is possible to obtain a release of the rental guarantee, i.e. of the funds blocked in your Belfius bank account, before the end of the lease. To recover the funds blocked at Belfius under the rental guarantee, before the end of the lease or at the end of it, both tenant and lessor must go to a Belfius branch.

The guarantee may be released on the basis of the inventory offixtures on departure.

The e DEPO rental guarantee service is offered by the Belgian administration via the Myminfin portal of the FPS Finance. The e DEPO application enables you to block funds with the Caisse des dépôts et consignations. The e DEPO service is therefore a public service, while the BELFIUS banking network is a private bank offering its customers the opening of an account in the tenant’s name and the blocking of funds on this account.