overview

Information for landlords

  • Rent decree student rooms

  • Model rental agreement Kotwest

  • General terms Kotwest

  • Rules and regulations

  • Offer student rooms for rent?

  • Problems during the rental period

Rent decree student rooms

More info coming soon

The rental agreement

We advise a rental agreement in writing. 

 

Kotwest general terms

Kotwest is a collaboration between VIVES, HOWEST & KULAK. On this website students can find rooms for rent in West-Flanders. We aim to bring landlords and students together. Students can find a room easily and landlords get free promotion for their rooms. In that context it's important to us to set some conditions:

Quality of the room

  • Possess a warrant of exploitation no more than 10 years old. If new police regulations are in function, the rooms must meet the new standards within a year of their implementation.
  • Smoke detectors are mandatory!
  • Disapproved rooms or rooms that don't have a warrant of implementation within a year after the check-up (including suggestions) will be removed.
  • The warrant of exploitation must always be provided to Kotwest at the landlord's initiative.

Rental agreements

Model agreement Kotwest:

  • It's prohibited to make any changes to the model agreement without written permission from Kotwest.
    • A version with blank space that can be filled out is available for free at Kotwest and can be downloaded from the website.
    • When using the model agreement the landlord is entitled to free information, advice and mediation in case of queries or problems. Please go to the student services department at the student's school. Contact data are below.
  • Non-model agreements:
    • The rental agreement must be presented to Kotwest for approval before the first use of the room.
    • We reserve the right to partially or completely disapprove rental agreements.
    • Kotwest won't supply information, advice or mediation.
    • These clauses are always cause for disapproval:
      • Clauses charging interests in case of late payment
      • Clauses pertaining to verbal elongation of the rental agreement
      • Clauses that end the agreement using a severance term
      • A rental deposit worth more than 2 months' rent
      • All rental agreements must be made in four copies: one for the student, one for the landlord, one for Kotwest and one for registration. Contact data are below.
      • Registration of all signed rental agreements is obligatory.

Website Kotwest

  • Supplied information must be correct and up to date.
  • Entry must be updated immediately after the rental agreement is signed.
  • Kotwest regularly checks whether the information supplied to the site matches the information in the rental agreements.

Complaints/problems

  • Service towards students can only be judged based on experience. A new landlord gets the benefit of the doubt. Landlords that are regularly complained about regarding bad service, unwarranted keeping of deposits, incorrect billing, lack of timely repairs, privacy violations... will be removed from Kotwest's database.
  • Landlords are always invited to a meeting and will (depending on the gravity of the complaint) get a second chance. If a similar complaint with merit is filed at a later point, the landlord will be informed in writing that they won't be included in Kotwest's offer going forward.

Agencies, real estate firms, syndicates ...

  • Mark use on the Kotwest file.
  • All costs charged to the student should be mentioned on the Kotwest file (administrative fees, official assessment of the room's state,...)

Contact data for Kotwest partners:

  • STUVO VIVES campus Brugge en Oostende en KU Leuven campus Brugge: Inge Eytorff, inge.eytorff@stuvoloods.be,  050 30 52 93
  • STUVO VIVES campus Kortrijk, Torhout en Roeselare: Lien Reyns,lien.reyns@stuvoloods.be, 056 26 41 84 en Steve Vangroenweghe, steve.vangroenweghe@stuvoloods.be, 056 26 41 84
  • Studentenvoorzieningen KULAK  campus Kortrijk: Matthias Defour, Matthias.Defour@kuleuven-kulak.be, 056 24 64 65
  • STUVO HOWEST: Brugge: Stael Isabelle, isabelle.stael@howest.be, 0479 917 117, Kortrijk: Simon Clinckemaillie, simon.clinckemaillie@howest.be 0497 71 00 05

Rules and regulations

Before signing up for Kotwest it's advisable to gather information regarding the rules and police regulations which are in effect in the city or town where you plan to rent out rooms.

We refer you to the link Towns on this website where you can find the governing rules per student town.

Do note: Kotwest reserves the right to remove student rooms which weren't approved by the city services from its files. If you can prove compliance with the regulations at a later date, we can include the room again..

Offering your rooms for rent

Do you have student rooms or studios for rent in Brugge, Oostende, Kortrijk, Torhout or Roeselare?

We'll be glad to meet you and inform you of Kotwest's functioning in a personal meeting.

Would you like information about the renting of student rooms?

Kotwest will be happy to help promote your student rooms and assist you in renting them out. We can give you information on average rental prices, rental terms, location in relation to the school, or model agreement, house regulations, assessments of room condition,....

We will also inform you of any preliminary steps you must take before we can include your room in our offer. We can also direct you to the city services that arrange permits and conformity labels.

Problems during the rental period

During the rental period it's possible that problems might occur: a student might cause a disturbance, not pay the rent, end the contract without a valid reason,...

If you use our model rental agreement you can turn to us for information, advice and mediation free of charge.