With the ‘Fair House’ campaign, the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) wants to inform Flemish people about the asbestos inventory certificate, or the asbestos test for short, which will become mandatory from the end of November for the sale of a house built before 2001.
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With a major inventory operation of materials containing asbestos in homes, Flanders wants to map out where and in what condition asbestos is present and whether it must be removed. From 23 November, such an asbestos test is mandatory.
‘An asbestos test does not always mean that the asbestos present must also be removed,’ says Ann Cuyckens, head of department at OVAM. ‘Removal is only necessary if the presence of the asbestos poses a risk.’
Asbestos-safe Flanders
The asbestos test is one of the first action points from the Flemish government’s asbestos reduction policy. The aim is to move to an asbestos-safe Flanders by 2040. With the ‘Fair House’ campaign, OVAM wants to make Flemish people aware of the content and usefulness of the certificate.
‘Asbestos is a major problem that we carry with us from the past, and that is still not gone’, says Cuyckens. ‘The phase-out policy contains four pillars: inventory, removal, management and prohibited applications or actions.’
It is estimated that all Flemish buildings together contain 2.3 million tons of asbestos. 865,000 of these are in private homes.
Certified asbestos experts will set out to inventory these homes from 1 June, but the effective obligation will only apply from the end of November and for homes built before 2001.
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