FAQ

Don’t look for a student room haphazardly. Settle behind  your computer and discover what kot@limburg has to offer you.Think about what is important to you. Kot@limburg has a very diverse range of student rooms. So first ask yourself which characteristics a student room should contain for you personally. Small or big? Do you prefer a landlord that lives in the student house? A room or a studio? What is the distance to the campus? Answering  these questions makes your search a lot easier.

Via our search engine you can start your search for a nice room to spend your student days in. The search can start on the basis of various criteria. On the left side of the homepage you can select a number of basic criteria such as city / municipality, price, etc. If you want to search even more specifically, click on the button “advanced search”.

You will see photos and information of the different rooms that are included in the our room database. This way you can see at a glance which rooms are available and where they are located. If you click on a room, you will see all the properties and costs. The contact details of the landlord can also be found here. Do not hesitate to contact the landlord if you have additional questions.

You can find more than 2.500 rooms in the database, so there is something for everyone.

The best time to start looking for a student room is April/May. If you start your search earlier, the range of rooms on offer may be limited. Sometimes landlords do not yet know which rooms will be available. From April on, landlords often have more clarity.

Preparation is half the battle, so think carefully before taking a room. Given that it will become your ‘home’, it should be a place where you’ll feel happy. Are you a social animal who likes to live in a lively house? If so, a room with a communal kitchen will be ideal for you. Are you a keen chef, and is the kitchen your sanctuary? A studio might be a better choice in this case. Do you like living near campus, or do you mainly want to be close to your friends? All these questions will help determine your choice of accommodation. Think about what is important to you and what kind of accommodation will suit you personally.

Have a look at the options at kot@limburg and filter the rooms on offer according to the criteria which are important to you. You can then start a focused search for a room that is right for you.

Most landlords can be recognised by this poster.

You can also check the website to see if you can find the room in the database kot@limburg.

Yes, you can! Kot@limburg advises students to visit a room before signing a rental agreement. That way, you won't face an unpleasant surprise afterwards. You can also visit various rooms without any obligation on the Open Rooms Days. Keep an eye on the website for the dates.

The Open Rooms Days coincide with the information days of PXL University College, UC Leuven-Limburg and Hasselt University. Consult the list of participating landlords.

All rooms on kot@limburg.be must be rented out using our model tenancy agreement. This model tenancy agreement is evaluated annually by the housing offices of the educational institutions, in collaboration with legal experts and the tenants’ organisation (Huurderssyndicaat).

You can also receive free supplemental tenant liability insurance if you turn in a copy of your lease to your educational institution's housing department by October 31. Check how you can do this on the website of your institution.

In addition, you can always contact the housing office if you have any problems or questions. 

For practical problems, it is best to contact your landlord.

The rooms must be compliant with all legal requirements regarding fire insurance certificates, conformity certificate and / or operating license, EPC, etc. This means that the landlord must have an approval from the city or municipality to rent the rooms out to students. The fire brigade is responsible for the technical inspection of each building. In addition, the landlord arranges insurance coverage for his property.

The range of rooms at kot@limburg is diverse. You will find almost 2.500 rooms from more than 200 owners spread over Diepenbeek, Hasselt and Genk. We do not have our own student residences, so we only work with landlords on the private market.

The offer ranges from large student houses to rooms with an owner who lives with the students. You can also find studios in the room database. There is something for everyone.

Some of our rooms are furnished, others are not. It is best to make clear agreements with the owner in advance about which furniture is part of your room.

In academic year 2020-2021, the average monthly rent was 408 euros for a studio and 284 euros for a room. The type of room, the surface and the private facilities determine the rent. The neighbourhood and the room’s energy performance are also considered.

We do our best to keep our information about the rooms offered up to date. We rely on the landlords’ cooperation for this. If you are unsure about availability, it is best to contact the landlord himself. You will find the contact details of each room on the website.

The house rules are an addition to your rental contract. It lays down a number of rules that ensure that everyone in the student house can live together in a pleasant way. We would like to give you a few points of attention about these internal regulations:

It must not contain any agreements that are contrary to the contract (or the law), eg: The contract states that the owner may only enter your room with your permission or in case of force majeure. That’s why the house rules should not state that the owner can always enter the room without permission to make repairs. This is not valid.

Drugs and alcohol abuse can change the atmosphere in the dorm, in a way that’s not always pleasant for everyone. That’s why agreements about this are often mentioned in the house rules. What’s not allowed in the house rules, is that the abuse of alcohol and/or drugs can lead to a fine or termination of the contract. Only a judge can have the contract terminated because of the behavior of a tenant.

Extra costs may be included, but only when they are costs related to rental damage (lost key, not properly cleaned on exit, damage to the walls, ...). When this is included in the house rules, you also know well in advance what the costs will be.

Yes! Your landlord must meet a lot of legal standards to be compliant with fire safety. There must be several measures concerning fire prevention, fire fighting and evacuation and the owner must also be able to present inspection certificates and logs (when are which appliances checked for safety).

When you rent a student room, you commit yourself to get an insurance policy that covers the tenant's liability towards the owner of the room and third parties for the duration of the rental contract. In most cases, the fire policy of the address where you are domiciled will provide such coverage (often it will be the insurance policy of the parents or guardian) and you will therefore not need to take out a separate insurance policy. If in doubt, contact your insurance broker.

Don't have an existing insurance policy that covers your tenant liability? No problem, you can then call upon the additional tenant liability insurance taken out by the educational institution free of charge. To be eligible for this, you must send a copy of your model lease to your educational institution by October 31st at the latest.

Are you a doctoral student? Then unfortunately you cannot make use of this tenants' liability insurance and you must always take out your own insurance.

Damage to your personal belongings is in principle covered by the family insurance of your parents. Be sure to check with your family's insurance broker.

This insurance covers damage (water damage, fire damage, lightning/explosion) to your student room.  

Are your neighbours causing a nuisance? Usually it is unintentional. Just knock on their door and have a friendly chat with them. This will often solve the problem. If the problem continues, contact your landlord or the housing office of your educational institution.

If there are practical or technical problems, contact your landlord. Minor repairs are the responsibility of the tenant. You can find more information on the Flemish goverment site (Dutch only).

In case of other problems such as a dispute with the landlord, you can contact your institution’s housing office. They can mediate in such situations or refer you to a legal office for (free) legal advice. You will find the contact details at the bottom of this site.

Are you going on an internship or temporarily abroad next academic year? That probably means that you do not need your room during this period. In this situation it can be interesting to sublet your student room to another student. Subletting is also possible via our website kot@limburg.be. Your room can be included on the Erasmus list.

Bear in mind that some conditions apply: you must have our model tenancy agreement and your landlord’s written permission to sublet.

You should use a subletting agreement that you can obtain from your institution’s housing office. Do not forget that as a tenant you remain responsible for the subtenant’s actions. You will also continue to pay the rent to the landlord: the subtenant should pay his or her rent into your account.

In other words, as original tenant, you remain liable for the contractual obligations. Since you remain responsible for your room and must return it to your landlord in the same condition, it is important that your subtenant has good fire insurance in case he is held liable for fire or related hazards. Belgian students are sometimes insured under their parents' policy, but not always. This is best checked by the subtenant.

If youare interested in putting your room on the Erasmus list, give your institution's housing service your contact details, the address of the room and the period for which you wish to make it available. We place your room on the website and hopefully you will find a temporary tenant.

Belgian students can only domicile under certain conditions. The student must meet a number of conditions: attend a daytime course, have permission from the landlord and have his own income. It is important to know that in this case, you cannot use our model tenancy agreement, but a housing lease for primary residence must be used.

Students cannot have a domicile at the student housing address in Diepenbeek and Genk, in Hasselt this is sometimes possible. Different rules apply to foreign students.

Non-EU students who stay in Belgium for more than 3 months are obliged to domicile. The owner can only allow this if he has licensed room numbers.

Registration at the town hall is mandatory and after registration a police officer will come to check if the student is actually living in the room. If you have questions about domicile, you also can contact the housing counter of the municipality / city.

When completing the contracts, you must make sure that you enter the address of the principal residence abroad at the top of the lease under “Tenant details”. The Belgian student address must be entered under "data of the student housing address".

If you are a minor the housing services recommend that a parent or guardian always signs the tenancy agreement.

Don’t forget to draw up an inventory before you move into the student room. This will prevent any disputes when you move out of the room. 

In principle, the agreement remains valid for the entire rental period. However, there are some valid reasons to cancel the contract earlier. You’ll find the exact conditions in the tenancy agreement itself, Art. 7 Early termination.

In principle, the way in which you terminate your lease is free and not subject to any formal requirements. However, it is best to opt for a way that allows you to produce written proof of your termination should it become necessary. It is therefore advisable to send your notice of termination to the landlord by registered letter, or by e-mail with a read receipt.

Is your question not on this list? Are you unable to find a satisfactory answer to it? Send an email to your educational institution's housing service. You can find the contact details at the bottom of this site.

Yes! You are, as the owner of student rooms in Diepenbeek, Hasselt or Genk, very welcome to our room database! Joining the Limburg room database is free!

We request that each landlord has a valid EPC, operating license or certificate of conformity, and fire insurance. You are also obliged to use our model tenancy agreement .

If you are interested, make an appointment with the housing service of Hasselt University. We are happy to explain our working method and create an account for you. Afterwards you can manage your data yourself.

Yes, you can adjust all data yourself in the database. You can only adjust the prices and costs of your rooms between 1 February and 30 April. You can adjust all other information yourself at any time. We also provide a manual for this. But you can always ask for help from the housing service of Hasselt University

When you get an account as a new owner, you will also receive an email with a link to the login page and your login information. It is best to save this email and always use  this link. If you work with Google Chrome as a web browser, it can help to clear your "cache" at your browser history. 

If you have lost the email with the link and your login details, no problem. The housing service of UHasselt can always provide you with a new link.

If you are unable to log in with these tips, please let us know. We will help you solve this problem!

We strive to keep the availability of the offered rooms as up to date as possible. For this we count on your cooperation as a landlord.

The website shows the available rooms by default. When you reset the vacant room in your account, it will automatically be visible to students who come to the website to search for a room. You can also indicate for which period the room is available (less than 10 months, 10 months, 11 months or 12 months). In this way you help the student to search in a targeted manner.

A student agrees to take out insurance during the term of their lease to cover their tenant's liability to you as the kote owner and third parties. In most cases, the family policy of the address where the student is domiciled provides such coverage free of charge (often this will be the insurance policy of the parents or guardian) and the student therefore does not need to take out a separate insurance policy. Does the student not have an insurance policy that covers their tenant liability? No problem, the student can then use the additional tenant liability insurance taken out by the educational institution free of charge. This covers water damage, fire damage, lightning/explosion/short circuit ..., but not the student's contents . To obtain this free supplementary fire insurance, we must be in possession of a copy of the student's contract. This insurance does not apply to doctoral students.

Copies of all contracts must be turned in to the housing office by October 31.

All non-EU students  are additionally obliged to take out insurance through the health insurance fund. In addition, they are also insured at UHasselt, UCLL and Hogeschool PXL through the Student Insurance Program (SIP). This insurance also includes hospitalization, repatriation and civil liability.

Belgian students can only domicile under certain conditions. The student must meet a number of conditions: attend a daytime course, have permission from the landlord  and have his own income. It is important to know that you can’t use our model tenancy agreement for these students (and foreign doctoral students). For them you are obliged to use a housing lease for primary residence. You will find enough examples on the internet.

Non-EU students who stay in Belgium for more than 3 months are obliged to domicile. As an owner in Hasselt, Diepenbeek or Genk it is important to ensure that these students have their own house number. If you have questions about domicile, you can contact the housing counter of your municipality / city.

After registering at City Hall, a police officer will come by to check if the student is actually living in the room.

When completing the contracts, you must make sure that you enter the address of the principal residence abroad at the top of the lease under “Tenant details”. The Belgian student address must be entered under "data of the student housing address"

Every year a lot of foreign students study at the Hogeschool PXL, UCLL and Hasselt University. These are exchange students, master students and doctoral students. Depending on which group they belong to, they can stay for 3, 6, 12 months or more.

When housing foreign students, you automatically come into contact with cultural differences. Eating habits, hygiene and social interaction differ from country to country. That is why we had posters made in which there are some basic rules for the kitchen, room and bathroom. You can request these from us to hang them in your student house.

Also remember that only the Dutch-language contract is legally valid. We provide an English translation of the  model tenancy agreement , but this is only intended to inform. If possible, we recommend that you go through the contract before signing with the student to avoid misunderstandings afterwards. In this way it is clear to the student at the outset what his / her rights and obligations are.

A foreign student does not come here like a Belgian student with all his / her personal possessions'. It would be nice for them if a basic package of household material (such as sheets, pots and pans, cutlery, ...) is already available in the student room. You can always offer this in the form of a "loan" and conclude a separate contract with the student.

Since 1 January 2019, a Flemish Housing Rental Decree has come into effect. This decree also contains a section about student rooms. You can consult this brief overview. If you would like to read everything, you can surf to the website of the Flemish government.

Do you have another question? Is the answer to the question insufficient for your situation? Let us know, we are happy to help you!