Repayment of the allowance: force majeure

When purchasing property in the Brussels-Capital Region, you may qualify for an allowance of 175.000€ on registration duties. In practical terms, this means that you do not pay registration duties (12,5%) on the first 175.000€ of your purchase, representing a saving of  21.875 €.

To qualify for this allowance, you must meet certain conditions.

In particular:

• the property purchase price must be less than 500 000€,
• you must live in the property for 5 years,
• You cannot be (or remain) the owner of another property.

If, during these 5 years, you decide to leave your property, you will have to repay the full amount of the saving initially granted, namely 21.875€, which is still a considerable sum…

Fortunately, exceptions are provided for in the legislation… because life can sometimes bring unforeseen surprises. This exception is known as “force majeure”. 

This term is rather vague, as the legislator will decide on a case-by-case basis whether the reason given is valid or whether repayment is due…

“The purchaser may retain the benefit of the allowance if they prove that the failure to comply with the obligation results from an event that they could not have foreseen at the time of purchase, that they could not have prevented and that made it impossible to fulfil the obligation to maintain their main residence in the property purchased.”

Events considered (in principle) to constitute force majeure would include, for example: the death of the (co-)owner, divorce or separation, serious illness, reassignment abroad, …

source: pim.be