Every heating engineer is legally required to issue a certificate. Most do it too late.

There is no heating engineer in Flanders who does not know they must issue a certificate after every boiler service. And yet it is the most postponed task in the sector: the certificate gets filled in after the working day, at home or in the car, based on notes made a few hours earlier.

The result: certificates that arrive late, measurement values that no longer match, clients calling for a certificate from three years ago that cannot be found anywhere. And when selling a property or applying for an energy grant: stress and delays for everyone.

What the legislation requires

The Flemish Government Decree of 8 December 2006 (VLAREM II) establishes that every boiler service must be carried out by an accredited heating engineer, and that after every visit they must issue a certificate to the owner. That certificate must contain:

• —Boiler identification: brand, model, serial number, fuel, capacity
• —Combustion analysis results: CO content in flue gases, CO2 percentage, O2 percentage
• —Flue gas temperature
• —Calculated combustion efficiency
• —Visual boiler check: condensate drain, expansion vessel, safety valve, flue
• —Accreditation number of the technician
• —Date and signature

That certificate is not only required for the owner. It is also the evidence document for an EPB inspection, required as an attachment to grant applications, and can be requested by the notary when selling a property. A certificate that does not exist or is incorrect blocks all of those processes.

How it works in practice

A technician services an average of eight to ten boilers per day. After each visit they have notes on paper: the readings from their combustion analyser, a tick on a checklist, a comment about the expansion vessel. That is the raw input.

At home, or in the car between clients, those notes are converted into a certificate. That takes ten to fifteen minutes per boiler. For ten boilers per day: one and a half to two hours of extra unbillable work every day.

Three situations where things go wrong

1. The client calls about a certificate for a property sale

A property owner is selling their home and the notary asks for the latest boiler service certificate. The owner calls you. You now need to search your archive — paper folder, email inbox or an Excel file — for a certificate from possibly two years ago. If you cannot find it, you must visit again or produce a new certificate based on old data. Lost time for work already paid for.

2. The environmental inspectorate requests the certificate

The Flemish Environmental Inspectorate can audit a heating company and request certificates from the past period. If those certificates are incomplete, produced late, or missing, the company risks a warning or sanction. Not because the service was not done, but because the proof is not in order.

3. CO incident after a service

If there is a carbon monoxide alert in a home after a boiler service, the intervention dossier is the first thing examined. Was the CO reading correctly carried out? Were the flue gas values compliant? If the certificate is incomplete or the values are wrong, the technician faces legal exposure.

What automation looks like

A technician arrives at a boiler. On their phone they enter the readings from their combustion analyser: CO, CO2, O2, flue gas temperature. They complete the visual checklist. Five minutes of work on-site.

The certificate is automatically generated: their name, accreditation number and company details are already filled in. The client receives the certificate digitally before the technician drives to the next boiler. The certificate is stored per address, permanently retrievable.

• —No more evening work: the certificate is ready before the technician leaves.
• —Measurements directly from analyser to certificate: no retyping, no errors.
• —Archive per address: every certificate retrievable by client or address.
• —Grant dossier: certificate exportable in one click as attachment to subsidy application.
• —Accreditation number entered once, automatically on every document.

Why this is the largest market

Every home in Belgium with a heating boiler is a potential client. The maintenance obligation is annual or biannual. The documentation requirement is identical at every visit. The volume is enormous, the structure is predictable, and the level of digitisation is low.

Small heating companies operate without ERP systems. Many technicians are self-employed or work in a team of three to five. Their administration is their weakest point — and exactly the point where Quotedrop makes the most difference.

Boiler maintenance and certificate requirements in the Netherlands, Germany and France

The Flemish VLAREM II is unique in its specific certificate requirement per boiler visit, but comparable obligations exist across Europe. In the Netherlands, SCIOS scope 6 certification applies to heating engineers who maintain combustion installations. After every service, a service report is mandatory, and the maintenance company must be demonstrably certified. In Germany, the 1. BImSchV (1. Bundesimmissionsschutzverordnung) governs mandatory periodic inspection of heating installations by certified Schornsteinfegermeister, with a mandatory measurement protocol after every service.

In France, Décret n° 2009-1321 requires annual maintenance of heating boilers above 4 kW by an accredited installer, with a mandatory maintenance invoice serving as evidence. The European Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD 2010/31/EU) also establish energy performance requirements for boilers across all EU member states, indirectly strengthening the documentation obligation.