Asbestos certificate when selling your home: arrange it in time

If you are selling your home in Flanders, you need an asbestos certificate for the sale of a home before the preliminary sales agreement is signed. Many owners only hear about it when the estate agent puts the sales file together, and by then the timing is tight. Below you can read when the certificate is compulsory, who may draw it up, roughly what you pay and what goes wrong if it is missing on the day of signing.

What exactly is an asbestos certificate?

An asbestos certificate is an inventory of all asbestos containing materials present in your building that are reachable without demolition. A certified asbestos expert visits the property, inspects the construction, takes samples where needed and has them analysed in a laboratory. The result is a document listing the materials found, their location, their condition and advice on how to deal with them.

The survey is non destructive. The expert does not open up walls or floors, so materials that are fully enclosed do not appear in it. That is exactly the scope of the certificate: it describes what is visible and reachable at the time of the visit, not every gram of asbestos in the building.

The certificate is registered in the asbestos inventory database of OVAM, the Flemish waste agency, and stays valid for a maximum of ten years. If materials are in poor condition, OVAM can impose a shorter period of validity. Do not confuse it with the energy performance certificate: that one is about energy, the asbestos certificate is about safety.

When is it compulsory when selling?

Since 23 November 2022, the asbestos certificate has been compulsory when selling a building in the Flemish Region, provided the construction has a so called risk construction year. In concrete terms this covers buildings dating from 2000 or earlier, with an accessible surface of at least twenty square metres. Most Flemish homes therefore fall within its scope.

The obligation rests on you as the seller. You must communicate the content of the certificate to the buyer before the preliminary sales agreement is signed, not only at the notarial deed. The notary later records in the deed whether that actually happened. The certificate therefore belongs with the first documents you gather, together with the energy performance certificate, the soil certificate and the town planning information.

Outside Flanders this rule does not apply. In Brussels and Wallonia there is currently no comparable compulsory asbestos certificate when selling. If you are selling an apartment, then alongside your private part there is also a certificate for the common parts. That runs through the association of co owners, so request it from your building manager in good time.

Who draws it up and what does it cost?

Only a certified asbestos inventory expert may issue a valid certificate. That person works for a company holding a process certificate. A contractor, an estate agent or an energy expert cannot do this, however well they know your home. OVAM keeps a list of certified companies, and most estate agents work with a regular partner.

The price is not fixed by law. What you pay depends on the surface area, the number of buildings on the plot and above all on the number of samples that have to go to the laboratory. For an average family home, budget several hundred euro. Request two or three quotes and check whether the laboratory costs and the number of samples are included, because that is usually where the difference lies.

Plan the visit early. Between the request and the final certificate a few weeks quickly pass, certainly in busy periods. A home that is already under offer while the certificate still has to be issued creates needless tension at the negotiating table.

What does it contain, and must you have asbestos removed?

The certificate classifies the materials found according to their condition and the risk they pose. Bonded asbestos in good condition, such as an intact corrugated sheet roof or an old floor covering underneath a newer finish, generally poses little danger as long as you do not drill or saw into it. Non bonded materials and damaged applications receive stricter advice.

For you as the seller this is what counts: the certificate does not oblige you to remove asbestos before the sale. You only have to show what is there. Flanders aims to be asbestos safe by 2040 and from 2032 every owner of a building with a risk construction year must hold a certificate, even without a sale, but there is no remediation obligation on transfer today.

In practice a buyer does use the certificate as a negotiating argument. A roof full of asbestos cement easily translates into an offer that is a few thousand euro lower. If you know in advance what is in your home, you can prepare for that conversation instead of simply absorbing it.

What if the certificate is missing at the preliminary agreement?

Then the sale stands on shaky legal ground. If the buyer did not receive the content of the asbestos certificate before signing, they can claim annulment of the sale. They can also waive that nullity, for example by agreeing once the certificate is available, but that is their choice and not yours.

In practical terms this means you run the risk of a sale collapsing months later, with all the consequences for the purchase you may already have planned yourself. Your notary will also not simply execute the deed without this point being settled.

The solution is straightforward: treat the certificate as a starting document, not as a formality for the end. Put it, together with your energy performance certificate and soil certificate, on a list that has to be complete before the first viewing. An estate agent who does the job properly raises that list at the intake meeting.

How to keep your sales file on schedule

An asbestos certificate is one of the few documents that can genuinely block your sale, and at the same time one of the cheapest to sort out in time. Request it as soon as you decide to sell, and request your soil certificate and town planning information at the same moment.

If you first want to know what your home is worth today, request a free valuation of your home. If you are looking for someone to assemble the full file for you, it pays to put several agencies side by side. Their approach, their timing and their commission differ considerably. Through ImmoMakelaarVergelijker.be you compare up to three recognised estate agents free of charge and without obligation from your municipality. You fill in your details once, and the agents in your postcode contact you themselves with their proposal.