Selling a car in Belgium: inspection, Car-Pass, plates

If you come from Germany, you know a sale as something between two people, with the authority informed afterwards. In Belgium three things interlock that you need to know about in advance: a technical inspection tied to the sale, a legally required record of the mileage, and a plate that — much as in Switzerland — belongs to the keeper rather than the car.

Then there is the country's federal structure. Registration is a federal matter: the DIV, the registration service of the federal mobility department, keeps the register. Technical inspection, by contrast, is a regional matter — Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels each regulate it themselves, and by now they do so differently. Anyone selling in Belgium therefore first needs to know which rule applies to their sale.

The procedure itself is manageable: prepare the car, gather the documents, sign the contract, take off the plates and end your own registration. The buyer registers the car in their name, usually through their insurer, and receives their own plate. Only then does the car leave your drive.

For a long time the rule throughout Belgium was this: a used car sold from one private person to another must go for a keuring voor verkoop, or contrôle technique en vue de la vente, before it is registered to the buyer. The test centre checks not only brakes and lights but also whether the car and its papers match. Without that proof, registration to the new keeper does not go through.

In Brussels and Wallonia this inspection remains compulsory. Flanders has decided to abolish it for purchases within Belgium by buyers resident in Flanders; it is to remain for imported vehicles, and the change is being phased in. Which version applies on the day of your sale is something any test centre can tell you, as can the Flemish administration's department for mobility and public works. Do not rely on older guides for this.

There are exceptions in every region. They mainly concern sales to a dealer or another trade business that arranges the inspection itself, and cars that are not to be registered again at all, for instance those sold for parts. Even where the inspection is not required, it can pay off: in a private sale, a fresh test report is the best answer to the question of whether something is wrong with the car.

The Car-Pass is a document issued by the non-profit organisation of the same name, which collects the mileage readings of Belgian vehicles. Garages, tyre dealers, test centres and dealers report the reading whenever they work on a car, and the Car-Pass prints those readings with their dates. It is the Belgian counterpart of the Dutch mileage registration — only with a sharper consequence.

Anyone selling a used vehicle registered in Belgium must give the buyer a Car-Pass, private sales included. If it is missing, the buyer can have a court declare the sale void and claim the money back, even afterwards. A Car-Pass is only valid for a limited time; an old one from the drawer does not meet the obligation. On a sale to a dealer the duty falls away — the dealer then owes their own customer a Car-Pass.

For the buyer, the Car-Pass is more than a formality. Read it like a row of witnesses: do the readings rise evenly, and do they match the service book and the wear on the pedals, steering wheel and driver's seat? A long gap without an entry proves nothing but deserves a question. And a reading lower than an earlier one ends the conversation until the seller can explain it convincingly.

A Belgian plate is tied to the person. When you sell, you unscrew the plates and keep them; the car leaves your drive without a number. That sounds cumbersome and is in fact the cleanest solution there is: once the plates are off, the question of who answers for fines, tolls and damage on the buyer's drive home is settled.

The plates then need somewhere to go. Either you carry the number over to your next car, or you have the registration cancelled at the DIV (schrapping or radiation). Until that happens, road tax keeps running in your name, and depending on the policy so does the insurance, although the car has long belonged to someone else. How the DIV accepts a cancellation is set out on its own pages; keep the receipt and send it to your insurer.

For the buyer this means registration has to be done before the car moves. The application runs electronically through the WebDIV system, in practice usually via the insurer writing the third-party cover, and the plate then arrives by post. Many buyers therefore pay, take the papers with them and collect the car later with their own plate. Put in the contract by when that happens and who carries the risk while the car is still with you.

In recent issues the Belgian registration certificate comes in two parts, each marked with a symbol: part I, with the car, belongs with the vehicle; part II, with the house, is the document kept at home. The buyer needs both; without part II the car cannot be registered in their name.

The contract deserves a second look, because buyer and seller in Belgium often do not share a language. Write it in a language both of you read with confidence, and if that is not the same one, in two languages side by side. The time is no detail here: it separates your last kilometres from the buyer's first.

Together, this makes up the folder that changes hands in a private sale. Gather it before the appointment and have copies ready in case the buyer wants to check in advance:

A buyer from Germany, the Netherlands or France does not want to register the car in Belgium but at home. For you that changes less than you might think: the Car-Pass, both parts of the registration certificate and the COC still go in the folder, and the plates still stay with you. Whether the pre-sale inspection is needed in this case depends on how the car leaves Belgium; according to the usual guidance it is not required for a sale for export, since nothing is re-registered in Belgium. If in doubt, ask a test centre.

There are three ways across the border. For cars being exported permanently, the DIV issues a separate transit plate, known as the X plate; those who can apply include buyers not resident in Belgium, with insurance for that purpose and for a limited period. The documents the DIV requires for it are listed by the federal mobility department. The second way is a trailer or transporter, the third a transfer or export plate from the buyer's own country, where that country issues one for a car located abroad.

What does not work: the buyer drives off on your plates and posts them back later. In Belgium that runs against the whole logic of the plate — it is tied to you, and every bit of damage and every fine along the way stays with you; whether your insurer will cover it is an open question.

On payment, the rule for every cross-border sale applies: papers and keys only once the full amount is definitely in your account, checked in your own banking app. An instant transfer in euros makes that possible even on a Saturday.