The installation you cannot lawfully switch on

How we work

Why the report matters more than the work

Belgium requires a new or substantially modified electrical installation to be inspected by an accredited body and found compliant with the General Regulation on Electrical Installations before it is put into service. Plenty of clients have never heard of this, which makes it the easiest thing in the trade to leave out: finish the work, invoice it, and let the inspection be somebody else's problem. The owner then discovers the gap at the worst possible moment, when selling, insuring or making a claim.

It is worth being clear about what the report really is. It is an independent check by an organisation with no stake in whether our work looks good, which is precisely why it is valuable to you and mildly uncomfortable for us. If it records non-conformities we correct them and pay for the re-inspection; that is how it is supposed to work, and a contractor who never has an item recorded is probably not having much inspected.

Two other limits are worth stating. Gas work needs an installer holding that specific qualification, so we coordinate rather than improvise. And in buildings from before 2001, drilling or chasing can disturb asbestos, so an inventory comes before the drill and removal goes to a licensed firm. Both cost a delay. Both are cheaper than the alternative.