The certificate nobody asks for

How we work

Why we put it on the front page

Tourist accommodation in Flanders is regulated. The operation has to be notified and registered, and the operator has to hold a fire safety certificate issued by the municipality. Letting without one is an offence. Yet in the entire process of choosing a holiday house — photographs, reviews, availability, price — almost nobody asks whether that document exists, and a let without one looks exactly like a let with one right up until something goes wrong.

That asymmetry is the reason to raise it unprompted. An operator who holds the certificate loses nothing by mentioning it; an operator who does not has every reason to stay quiet. So we say ours is on file and we will produce it, and we would encourage anyone booking anywhere to ask the same question. It is the single most useful thing a guest can ask and it takes one sentence.

The same logic runs through the other two activities, in different forms. Food that is not pre-packed still carries a legal duty to declare the fourteen listed allergens, and the honest version includes the limit: in a small kitchen handling those ingredients, traces cannot be guaranteed. And a category B driving licence does not cover every car and caravan combination — above certain weights it needs a BE licence, and a renter who does not know that is uninsured and committing an offence. Checking takes a minute and it is not our risk we are protecting.