After their upcoming wedding, Marlies, 31, and Ben, 34, both homeowners, would like to add their respective assets to the marital community. But they recently learned that doing so would come with huge costs!
An “absurd” consequence of Flemish regulations, which impose additional costs of 80,000 to 100,000 euros on them, Ben explains in the columns of HLN.
Currently, Marlies, a schoolteacher, and Ben, an IT specialist, each own a house in Schellebelle, East Flanders. “We met in 2019, shortly after I bought my house,” says Ben. Marlies had bought her house six months earlier, a few streets away. After living in Marlies’ house, the couple now lives in Ben’s. With a young child and another on the way, they are planning to renovate their current house and are considering marriage to simplify the administrative procedures. They want to include both properties in the marital community, for better mutual protection and for the future of their children.
However, they discover that their marriage triggers a renovation obligation for both houses, assimilated to a “purchase” for the partner, as Bram Maeschaelck, a notary lawyer, explains. “The government considers this action as a ‘purchase’ for your partner, which triggers the renovation obligation. This is also the case when you donate a house.” These houses, although inhabited, have an EPC F energy label, which was not a problem when they bought them in 2019. But now, renovation work, estimated at a minimum of 48,000 euros for the first house, is required to meet the new standards. Marlies and Ben will therefore have to renovate their two houses within five years. “These are not shanty towns,” laments Ben. “We have lived in these two houses,” he adds. Ben and Marlies have not yet made a final decision, but they regret that this renovation obligation compromises their future plans. “We’re going to have to sell one of the two properties, or renovate them both to the bare minimum, but that’s going to cost us an extra 100,000 euros,” Ben concludes.
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