Can a hunter keep his weapons in his country house in the Ardennes? That question is answered by lawyer Erik Nauwelaerts in the member magazine of Hubertus Vereniging Vlaanderen.
Context
I live and work in the city of Antwerp. Almost every weekend I escape the hustle and bustle and go to my country house in the Ardennes. I am also lucky enough to be able to hunt there. I only hunt in the Walloon Region and have not even had Flemish hunting leave for years. So it is much more convenient for me to leave my hunting weapons in my outdoor enclosure. Is this allowed?
What does the legislation say?
The rules are clear about how to store and transport your weapons correctly. If you want to refresh that knowledge, you can read a clear explanation about it on the HVV website.
The question of where to store your hunting weapons if you stay in several places is less easy to answer.
The Royal Decree that describes how weapons must be stored in implementation of the Weapons Act, always speaks of ‘place of residence’. A first important point is that your official address (‘domicile’) is not a decisive criterion with regard to the place where you should keep your weapons.
What is a place to stay?
The Arms Act gives a specific definition to the term ‘residence’, namely ‘the main residence that someone has in Belgium, excluding the places where weapons are stored and that the person concerned shares with third parties’. The legislation often uses difficult language, but this description is downright unclear.
There is a ‘circular’ for the practical application and interpretation of the weapons legislation. In it we read the clarification that when someone has two places of residence in our country, the weapons must be kept at the place where that person is most present. It is further clarified that the weapons may not be kept in your second residence that is inhabited by others when the person concerned is not present there.
This explanation seems logical, but in practice it can lead to absurd situations. For example, someone who obtains hunting leave at the age of 18 and goes to live in student accommodation during his further studies, will in principle have to have his weapons in his room and not in the parental home.
To answer today’s question in concrete terms, the hunting weapons may not be left in the outdoor enclosure. For the sake of completeness, I would like to emphasize that a Walloon hunting permit is sufficient to keep your weapons at home in Flanders.
Temporary residence
You don’t have to take your weapons everywhere you go and they can ‘only stay at home’ when you’re on holiday. The weapons may of course be transported to your hunting activities. To make it even more confusing in terms of terminology, I add the following. When you are in your country house (or in a hotel) with your weapons, that place becomes your ‘place of residence’. You must also comply with the security measures prescribed by the Royal Decree to keep your weapons at that temporary residence.
What are the possible consequences?
It can happen that your outdoor enclosure is broken into. Any theft of a weapon subject to a permit must be reported to the police and the governor. If the governor then finds that you are careless with your weapons by storing them in your country house while you are not staying there, as a victim of a theft you can also become the victim of a sanction or government measure.
Conclusion
Although it could be very practical in some cases, you are not allowed to permanently store your hunting weapons in your outdoor enclosure during the periods that you are not staying there.
Author: Erik Nauwelaerts, lawyer
