The new regulations surrounding home, garden and yard in Belgium state that people can enter a neighbor’s garden to find a lost ball. The rules also apply to a cat that has climbed into the neighbor’s tree and no longer dares to go down. In addition, from next week onwards, every Belgian will have the right to erect scaffolding at the neighbors during a renovation if necessary, and walkers will be allowed to walk over undeveloped private plots.
According to professor Vincent Sagaert (KU Leuven), who contributed to the reform, you should first ring the doorbell of the neighbors and ask nicely for your things. ‘But if they are not at home or refuse to cooperate, you can go into their garden,’ he tells the VRT. ‘Just to look for the ball or your animal, not to take other things with you. That’s still theft.’
Neighbor quarrel
There are concerns that the new rules will lead to neighbor disputes or undesirable situations, and the Belgian newspapers are full of questions. For example, who is liable if a child who comes to grab his ball is bitten by a neighbor’s dog? (Answer: the neighbor.) And what about your privacy? If you are sunbathing naked in the garden and cannot hear the bell, a neighbor may suddenly climb over the hedge. (Answer: Hope everyone uses their common sense.)
Especially in rural municipalities it is wrong that anyone can just walk on undeveloped plots if there is no prohibition sign. “We have a huge number of these plots in Glasbeek,” Mayor Peter Reekmans told the VRT. ‘As a municipality you cannot allow everyone to put prohibition signs on their land, that will lead to proliferation. Absurd and the world upside down.’
Reekmans is going to put a stop to it. At the next city council he will issue a police ordinance that will stop the new legislation. ‘If one in the Wetstraat (in Brussels, red.) implement absurd legislation, then we will make municipal repair legislation.’
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