Table of Contents
There is a Justice of the Peace for each district (which can include one or several towns and covers around 50,000 inhabitants). You can find the Justice of the Peace here (available in French or in Dutch).
For which problems
For instance:
- Rent or lease disputes: ordinary lease, housing lease, trade lease, usufructuary lease with right of pre-emption;
- disputes on use, benefit, maintenance, preservation or administration in common of apartment buildings;
- disputes on paths with right of way;
- disputes on credit contracts and assignment of wages;
- disputes dealing with a sum under 2,500 euro.
Prerequisite for access
You must have tried to solve the dispute directly with the company, to no avail.
How does it work
The parties defend their arguments (themselves or represented by a lawyer). The Justice of the Peace monitors the discussions and acts as mediator but cannot impose any solution.
Procedure to follow
Send a regular letter with the following information:
- first name, last name, address;
- identity (first and last names, address) of the other party/all the other parties that you want to summon;
- a short overview of the facts;
- your aim (for instance, that the other party pays a determined sum of money);
- your request for the other parties to be summoned to try to find a solution.
Or come to Justice of the Peace’s offices and ask for a conciliation hearing to be organised.
You can read the brochure "conciliation" (available in French or Dutch).
Fees
There are no fees.
If the conciliation procedure fails, you will have to take the matter to a court, which will involve charges.
More information
Basic legal help is available in the legal aid commissions (in French) where you can ask questions on the procedure and on your specific problems. A lawyer will answer (for free) as best as he can. However, he will neither act on your behalf (writing letters, asking the Justice of the Peace to organise a conciliation procedure…) nor represent you in a trial.
