Vehicle approval

The Brussels Mobility Vehicle Expertise Department is available to citizens and companies to issue certificates and duplicates of certificates of conformity following administrative modifications, loss or theft. Depending on the type of request, specific documents must be sent to us in order to process your request correctly.

Requests for duplicates and certificates for which the manufacturer is still operating must be submitted to the manufacturer in the first instance, through its mandatory, the importer or a dealer. If the manufacturer is unable to issue the required document, Brussels Mobility, as the competent regional authority, can act in its place.

• Certificate of restamping of the VIN (vehicle identification number)
• Duplicate of a certificate
• Engine replacement certificate

The Brussels-Capital Region charges a handling fee depending on the type of procedure. This fee is set by law in the Royal Decree of 28 April 2011 setting the amount and payment methods of the fees to be collected for the approval of motor vehicles, and is indexed annually.

Note: for procedures involving technical control centres, an additional fee is charged by the latter. This fee is not included in the rates below:

Vehicles permanently registered in a Member State of the European Economic Area or Switzerland without a European approval number on the registration certificate and/or on the identification plate/sticker, or with an approval number with national validity (Individual Approval) on one of these two items, must go through an approval procedure before they can be used on the road in Belgium. This procedure involves the validation of the registration certificate of the Member State or Switzerland, for which a validation certificate may be issued and serves as a compliance document to be presented to the Vehicle Registration Service (DIV) for registration.

This procedure is not an approval or a technical inspection, but simply the validation of the information on the foreign registration certificate compared with the Belgian regulations.

Temporary registrations are therefore not accepted for this procedure, except for those from the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The validation procedure applies to vehicles in categories M, N, O and L.

• Category M, N and O
• Category L

Note: As of 1 January 2021, Great Britain is no longer part of the European Economic Area. As a result, vehicles registered in this country for the first time after this date are no longer eligible for the validation procedure and will be subject to an Individual Approval if European conformity is not proven.

Vehicles registered in this country for the first time before this date remain eligible for the validation procedure. However, if the registration certificate does not comply with Directive 1999/37/EC, you must submit the following additional documents:

• Heritage Certificate with technical specifications. Requests can be made on the website www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk if there is no longer an official vehicle representative
• CRIS Certificate for recreational vehicles; requests are made via www.cris.co.uk
• One or more official documents from the manufacturer that provide the technical data necessary for registering the vehicle

Individual Approval and single-vehicle approval are two terms that simply refer to the approval of an individual vehicle, as opposed to the approval of mass-produced vehicles.

It is required when importing a vehicle from outside the European Economic Area, or when converting or modifying any part of the vehicle or any of its components, systems or technical units. It may also be necessary if the validation procedure for the registration certificate of a vehicle imported from a Member State of the European Economic Area or Switzerland cannot proceed due to non-compliance with its registration certificate or Belgian or European regulations.

Requests for Individual Approval must be submitted by the manufacturer or owner of the vehicle or by any person acting on their behalf:

• either to the competent regional authority through the Approval Department of one of the regional technical inspection centres
• or to a testing laboratory (Technical Service)

Individual Approval may be granted if the vehicle conforms to the description attached to the request and meets the applicable technical and environmental requirements at the time of first registration in accordance with Belgian and/or European regulations.

Individual Approval is therefore only valid in the territory of the Member State that granted it. In other words, a vehicle that has Individual Approval in Germany, France, Spain, etc., will have to be subject to a new Individual Approval in Belgium.

Important to know:

Before making any conversions or modifications to the vehicle, or to any of its components, systems or technical units, you must first obtain the authorisation of the manufacturer through its mandatory or importer. Only when the manufacturer has given its authorisation will you be able to carry out the desired conversions.

You can carry out these conversions yourself or have them carried out by an approved or non-approved bodyshop/converter. The difference between the approved and non-approved bodyshop/converter is that a company approved to carry out the desired modifications can issue you with a new Certificate Of Conformity directly after the modification. If you use a non-approved converter, or if you carry out the modifications yourself, you will need to have your vehicle approved by the competent regional authority of your choice through one of the technical inspection centres.

If necessary, a vehicle that has been converted/modified and approved in this way can be returned to its original condition. To do this, follow the procedure described below. Conversion of any kind is always subject to prior approval by the manufacturer, even if the vehicle is being returned to its original state.

NB: In the event of structural modifications (e.g. lowering of the floor), restoration to an original state is not always possible.

A request can be submitted in a single region. In the Brussels Region, Individual Approval requests apply to vehicles in the following categories:

• Category M, N and O
• Category L
• Category MT and LA

Specific transformations:

• Motorhome conversion
• Conversion of a car (category M1) into a van (category N1)
• Adaptations for people with reduced mobility

When you move house with your vehicle, it does not necessarily need to have an Individual Approval. Whether moving from a Member State of the European Economic Area or not, or from Switzerland, this procedure is an alternative to approval when the vehicle owner moves to Belgium permanently or temporarily with the vehicle. The competent regional authority issues a Relocation Certificate on completion of the procedure.

The Relocation Certificate is therefore an exemption from the technical and environmental requirements of the vehicle approval regulations, authorising registration on condition that the vehicle does not change ownership. To this end, the Relocation Certificate is issued on a personal basis. In the event of a change of ownership, the vehicle must undergo an Individual Approval.

The relocation procedure only applies to M1 and L category vehicles intended for passenger transport.

Non-European vehicle

To obtain a Relocation Certificate, follow the Individual Approval procedure for the category of your vehicle, except that the following additional documents are required:

• Certificate of Residence issued by the municipality where you live
• An identity card or passport

European vehicle with valid technical inspection certificate

If your relocated vehicle has a valid technical inspection certificate issued by the Member State from which it originates, and complies with Directive 2014/45/EU, you can start the registration procedure for intra-Community relocation through the technical inspection centre of your choice.

Newly registered vehicles, in the name of the same owner, retain the validity of the technical inspection certificate issued by the Member State, provided it is still valid according to the frequency of technical inspections in Brussels.

If there is any doubt, the validity of the technical inspection certificate can be checked before being accepted by the technical inspection centre.