Q&A - Landlord's responsibility?

Landlord.

This is a total guess, but I think that it may depend entirely upon when the fault was found and if it has been reported to the landlord. For example, if you have found the fault within the month after état de lieu and reported it to the landlord as an appendix to the état de lieu, then it's going to be the landlord's responsibility, but it might still be hard to prove. Good luck.

Is this issue reported in your initial house inspection report?
If not, do you have reported it within the 30 days after having got the expert's report?

If you answer No to both question, than it falls under your responsibility.

Why do posters fail to read the previous posts and thus post information which has already been posted?

Etats de lieu became obligatory in the Brussels region recently, not that our landlord has complied with this obligation. It does make it a bit tricky if an état de lieu has not been done for your tenancy, because then how do you prove it is not an existing problem when you moved int, thereby obliging the landlord to fix it? Thankfully our landlord seems very good, fixing quite a major fault without question which we only discovered after heavy rain, which we could never have known about until it did rain! Am I right in thinking that perhaps the OP's fault is going to have been detected only once the weather turned bad?

To be more precise: it is compulsory since 2007 in the 3 regions to realise an "Etat des lieux d'entrées" that must be registered by the landlord together with the contract.

If and only if it is a standard Belgian Contract (Main Residence - 9 years duration)

"According to the contract the valid état de lieu is the last one that was done in 2004, something like 5 or 6 tenants ago. One has not been performed since."
Illegal. This is not valid at all.
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Would I be right in thinking that you are in a low rent place in a less salubrious part of Brussels?
Are there smoke detectors in the building / apartment?
Is the building otherwise dilapidated or in need of repair?

Have you really a standard contract:
- Main residence?
- 9 years duration?

If yes, does it means that the last "etat des lieux" has been realized in the worst case 6*9 years = 54 years ago??

How can that be possible??

Here we go again, barely relevant posts which do not help the OP, despite a warning from the editor of this website to stop it!!!!
OP terribly sorry not all posts are being helpful for you. Do read your contract, try and talk to your landlord, if no luck, you might just have to fix the problem yourself and deal with responsibility for cost later. Just record all contact with the landlord.

Have you really a standard contract:
- Main residence?
- 9 years duration?

If yes, how can you explain that there was 6 different tenants since 2004? Did they all break their 9 years contract, why?

I am sorry but before to sign, you should have asked those questions...

There are so many apartment to rent in Brussels, why this one? If the 6 tenants before you have broken their contract??

OP has not at any time said there were 9 tenants who broke their 9 year contract. What on earth is the relevance of asking this? What business of your is it?

There are short term leases available, from high class serviced apartments to more reasonable cost and still not dilapidated. It is quite feasible for an apartment to have more than 6 tenants in 12 years, some have that many in a year. I still do not see the relevance. Please post useful advice instead of making bizarre assumptions which detract from the advice an OP is seeking. Thank you.

And of course, as you can imagine, when tenants require the rights to reside in a property for 9 years (without nearly any possibility to be evicted),on the other hand, tenants have lots of legal obligations to respect (like to fix and repair the damages that would have occured during their tenancy).

So Blet, if you do have a standard contract (Main Residence - 9 years duration), you and your landlord had the legal obligation to realize in common an "Etat des leix d'entrée" that must be registered by your landlord with the contract to the registration office (Cadastre).

Now, if your contract has not been registered you are allowed by laws to move out without having to pay any indemnity and without any termination period

OK - A bit clearer now.
Th état des lieux situation actually works in your favor. It means the landlord has no way of proving that you are responsible for any damage, therefore is never going to be able to withhold any of the deposit at the end.
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As for the bedroom window, no, it's not clear as to who's responsibility it is. You as the tenant are responsible for "normal" maintenance, but not for "structural" maintenance. So if it's a simple repair, you have to do it, but if the whole window frame needs replacing, the landlord has to do it. Somewhere in-between is a grey area where you can both blame each other.