One certificate is not enough

How we work

Why both, and why it is checkable

Work on equipment containing fluorinated greenhouse gases is governed by two distinct requirements. The person doing the work must hold a valid certificate of competence of the appropriate category, covering installation, maintenance, repair, leak checking, recovery and decommissioning. And the undertaking carrying out the work must itself be registered as a refrigeration company with the competent Flemish authority. Neither requirement substitutes for the other.

That structure is poorly understood, including within the trade. A company employing a properly certified technician can still be operating without the registration it needs. A registered company can still be sending someone whose certificate does not cover the category of work. Both situations are non-compliant, and the client discovers it — if at all — when something goes wrong or when the installation records are examined. Both are verifiable, which makes asking for them a genuinely useful question rather than a formality.

The same logic governs the electrical side, where the check is independent of us by design. A new or substantially modified installation must be inspected by an accredited body and found compliant with the General Regulation on Electrical Installations before it is put into service. An installation energised without that report cannot lawfully be used, and an insurer may decline a claim arising from it. We arrange the inspection, correct whatever it records, pay for the re-inspection and hand over the report — which is exactly how it is meant to work, and mildly uncomfortable for the contractor, which is the point.