I have been able to land a job in a company located in Belgium recently and it is worthwhile to mention, I do not reside in Europe.

During my application process, I was asked to pay for my paperwork in Belgium. Mind you, this is the money, the company has to pay to their government (not sure exactly what sector) to get my work permit and not the "handling fee" that I need to pay to their embassy here in my home country. I refused to pay that amount since it sounded quite weird to me that I should be the one who has to pay for what seems to be their responsibility as the hiring company. This eventually led to them paying the amount themselves.

Now, it comes to the point that I need to tell their embassy, where I will be staying upon my arrival. Since I had no clue, I asked about it from my point of contact in that company. To my surprise, I was told that I could book a hotel or some other place and pass it on to the embassy and after a while, look for a permanent place.

Unfortunately, since I was thinking these are implied rules (especially for expats), I never brought them up during my interview. There were a couple of things we discussed about, like getting a bike and that having a car (which they were going to provide) is kind of more expensive there and the headaches associated with it. They also mentioned they would pay my water, electricity and internet bills. Funnily enough in my contract, they have put that "I refrain from having a company car" but there is no reference to the bills they promised to take care of.

Maybe the next thing they ask me would be to get the plane ticket myself as well.

This seems like a good opportunity for me to get exposed to the market in Europe and to expand my skillset to hopefully land better jobs but the behavior of this company is kind of throwing me off.

Summary:

• Company is wanting me to handle and pay for my accommodation before arrival as an expat.
• I have worked abroad before and most things like; car, accommodation, fuel, etc... were actually handled by that company.
• It seems the things they ask me to pay and also the clauses in my contract are very one-sided in their favor.

Questions:

• Is this legal?
• Is accommodation not something that they have to take care of? at least for the initial month?

I have been able to land a job in a company located in Belgium recently and it is worthwhile to mention, I do not reside in Europe.

During my application process, I was asked to pay for my paperwork in Belgium. Mind you, this is the money the company has to pay to their government (not sure exactly what sector) to get my work permit and not the "handling fee" that I need to pay to their embassy here in my home country. I refused to pay that amount since it sounded quite weird to me that I should be the one who has to pay for what seems to be their responsibility as the hiring company. This eventually led to them paying the amount themselves.

Now, it comes to the point that I need to tell their embassy where I will be staying upon my arrival. 
Since I had no clue, I asked about it from my point of contact in that company. To my surprise, I was told that I could book a hotel or some other place and pass it on to the embassy and after a while look for a permanent place.

Unfortunately, since I was thinking these are implied rules (especially for expats), I never brought them up during my interview. There were a couple of things we discussed, like getting a bike and that having a car (which they were going to provide) is kind of more expensive there and the headaches associated with it. They also mentioned they would pay my water, electricity and internet bills. 
Funnily enough, in my contract they have put that "I refrain from having a company car" but there is no reference to the bills they promised to take care of.

Maybe the next thing they ask me would be to get the plane ticket myself as well.

This seems like a good opportunity for me to get exposed to the market in Europe and to expand my skillset to hopefully land better jobs but the behavior of this company is kind of throwing me off.

Summary:

• Company is wanting me to handle and pay for my accommodation before arrival as an expat.
• I have worked abroad before and most things like; car, accommodation, fuel, etc... were actually handled by that company.
• It seems the things they ask me to pay and also the clauses in my contract are very one-sided in their favor.

Questions:

• Is this legal?
• Is accommodation not something that they have to take care of, at least for the initial month?