Rental guarantee ING

ING bank is an international Dutch bank. ING Bank mainly provides investment financial services and life insurance. The bank’s customers are of all kinds: individuals, small and large companies, institutions and governments. ING manages more than 8 million bank accounts internationally. In Belgium, the bank ING had 552 branches in 2020. It announced the closure of 62 branches in 2021.

The rental guarantee has been put in place to protect the owner from the default of his tenants and the risks associated with the rental. It is framed by law but it is not compulsory. It is imposed in most residential leases. To find out if your lease contract is subject to a rental guarantee, all you have to do is read it and find out how the tenant’s commitments are guaranteed.

The Rent Act provides that the tenant’s guarantee can be provided by freezing a sum of money in a dedicated bank account. ING bank offers this individualized bank account opening service in Belgium for the rental guarantee. The individualized account opened with ING bank to house the amount of the guarantee is in the name of the tenant. It will be blocked until the end of the lease or until the prior agreement of the two tenant / lessor parties to release the rental guarantee from ING.

The blocked funds are invested and earn interest which will be paid to you at the end of the lease contract if the tenant has of course fulfilled all his obligations towards his lessor. The amount of interest paid by ING bank on the blocked account of the guarantee is however very low because market interest rates are historically low.

NG Bank does not currently offer a solution allowing the online opening of a rental guarantee. If you wish to open an account with ING to constitute your rental guarantee, you must first make an appointment with an advisor at your ING branch.

The time limit to be expected is at least that of opening an account with ING. Since ING bank does not offer an online procedure, you will have the following deadlines and steps to perform:

• Obtaining an appointment at the agency during opening hours ;
• Meeting with the ING account manager and constitution of the file ;
• Opening of the account by the “welcome team” of back office management.

You should therefore allow a minimum of one to two weeks to obtain a blocked rental guarantee account with ING bank.

PS : During periods of confinement due to COVID-19, these deadlines have been considerably lengthened due to the increased difficulty of reaching an interlocutor in an agency.

As seen above, ING bank offers future tenants the opportunity to open an account to lock in the amount of the rental guarantee. This service offer is very different from another ING bank service, which is the ING Bank Guarantee.

ING does offer several bank guarantee services, including a bank guarantee contract within the framework of a real estate lease. As part of a bank rental guarantee, ING undertakes to pay a guaranteed amount on your behalf if you are unable to honor your obligations as a tenant vis-à-vis the lessor.

The rental guarantee at ING can be released in 2 ways:

1. By obtaining the agreement of the parties: This situation is most common at the end of the lease. The procedure to release the funds blocked under the rental guarantee requires filling out the ING rental guarantee request form. The completed form is signed by the parties to the contract, then sent by post in original to the ING bank branch which blocked the funds.
2. On presentation of a judicial decision: This judgment must be enforceable and expressly rule on the tenant’s debt for the benefit of the lessor. The judgment is presented to the ING branch which has blocked the funds under the rental guarantee to be executed.

It is also possible to obtain a release of funds blocked under the rental guarantee before the end of the rental lease. To recover the funds blocked in the bank, discover our service by reading this article on the release of the rental guarantee.