Technical inspection when selling a car in Belgium

Since 1 September 2026, the answer depends on your Region. In Flanders, reselling a car registered in Belgium no longer requires a trip to the inspection station, provided the periodic certificate is still valid. In Brussels and Wallonia, the pre-sale inspection remains mandatory, and the bill lands somewhere between €90 and €101.

Technical inspection has been a regional competence since 2014, but until 31 August the differences between the three Regions stayed marginal. A Belgian seller had no reason to ask where the car was registered. That is over.

Do you still need a technical inspection to sell your car?

Three answers for one country. The table below covers the situations a private seller faces when selling to another private buyer, as of 2 September 2026.

The second row is the nuance most listings will drop this autumn. Flanders has not abolished technical inspection, it has abolished the extra inspection that a sale used to trigger. A car whose inspection certificate has expired is still a car that has to go to the station, sale or no sale.

In practice: a Ghent owner selling in October, with a car inspected in March and a certificate running to next March, now pays for the Car-Pass and nothing else. The same owner with a certificate that lapsed in August goes back to the station exactly as before.

What does the Flemish reform of 1 September 2026 change?

The Flemish government approved the package in March 2026 and it took effect yesterday. Six measures matter directly to anyone buying or selling used:

• The pre-sale inspection disappears for vehicles acquired in Belgium by a Flemish resident. Imported vehicles are still covered.
• Cars over four years old move to a two-yearly inspection, even past ten years or 160,000 km. In Brussels and Wallonia, it is still once a year.
• After a red card for a major defect, the repair window goes from fifteen days to two months.
• A minor defect no longer triggers a compulsory re-test: the certificate keeps its normal validity.
• The insurance certificate no longer has to be shown at the station, that check running through ANPR cameras.
• Fitting a tow bar no longer triggers an inspection.

The mandatory second-hand inspection also disappears for Flemish motorcycles. And for owners who still want to reassure a buyer, the station stays open: the Flemish reform explicitly allows an early periodic inspection on a voluntary basis.

How much does the pre-sale inspection cost in 2026?

The scale is set by ministerial order and it is identical across every station in a given Region. Here are the items that make up a private car seller's bill, at the rates in force since 1 January 2026.

Added up, these items give the real price of a sale on 2 September 2026. In Flanders: €11.10, the Car-Pass and nothing more. In Brussels, for a petrol car: €90.70. In Wallonia: €100.50. And for a Brussels diesel, €101.10.

The figure that really counts: a Walloon seller pays €89.40 more than their Flemish neighbour for exactly the same transaction, nine times the bill. On a small city car worth €4,000, that is 2.5% of the sale price going to admin fees on one side of the language border, and 0.3% on the other.

Does the Car-Pass still apply in all three Regions?

Yes, and that is the part the reform left alone.

The Car-Pass records the vehicle's certified mileage history. It costs €11.10, the seller has to provide it, and it cannot be more than two months old at the time of sale. Without it, a private sale is void by law. The Flemish government kept the obligation explicitly, presenting it as the consumer protection still standing after the pre-sale inspection went.

Can a Brussels or Walloon owner use the Flemish rules?

On the periodic inspection, yes, and the sector is already worried about it. Station choice is free anywhere in Belgium, and Touring expects many Brussels and Walloon drivers to start presenting their vehicles in the north of the country, because the inspection certificate lasts longer there than elsewhere, something Walloon Mobility Minister François Desquesnes had already called "technical inspection tourism" months before the rules took effect.

On the pre-sale inspection, be careful. The Flemish text targets vehicles acquired in Belgium by Flemish residents, not vehicles presented at a Flemish station. A Walloon seller who assumes they are exempt because they drove to Aalst risks the DIV refusing to register the buyer.

In practice: if you live in Wallonia or Brussels, budget for the pre-sale inspection, and check your own case with the station before promising anything to a buyer. The Moniteur Automobile file tracks these rules as regional decisions land.

Can you sell a car that failed its inspection?

In Brussels and Wallonia, no, not as it stands. The red card blocks the transfer until the defect is repaired and the vehicle re-presented at the station, within fifteen days for a major defect.

In Flanders, the question shifts rather than vanishes. The sale no longer requires a visit, so nothing formally stops you handing over a vehicle whose last certificate carried a red card. But the buyer inherits a car they cannot put on the road. No serious buyer accepts that without a discount matching the repair quote, and usually more, because they are also buying the uncertainty over what the station will find next time. The Flemish seller, on the other hand, now has two months to repair before re-presenting the vehicle, against fifteen days for a Walloon or a Brussels resident. Four times the window for the same fault, on identical cars.

If the red card lands on the particle test, our piece on the diesel particulate filter and the technical inspection sets out the thresholds and what the fixes cost.

Our verdict

If you are selling: do the maths before setting your price. In Wallonia and Brussels, count on €90 to €101 of unavoidable fees and a certificate that expires in two months, so only go to the station once you have a buyer. In Flanders, check the expiry date on your periodic certificate first: that date alone decides whether the reform saves you €79.60 on a petrol car, €90 on a diesel, or nothing at all.

If you are buying: ask for the Car-Pass and the latest inspection certificate, every time, including on a Flemish car where nobody is obliged to hand them over any more. Scrapping the pre-sale inspection removes a cheap filter that used to reassure buyers, and replaces it with your own diligence. Our list of the most reliable used cars per the TÜV shows which models age well, and our used car budget guide helps place an asking price. To compare several candidates, our comparison tool does the sorting.

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Sources: VRT NWS, Flemish technical inspection reform (17 March 2026) · La Libre, "technical inspection tourism" and Touring's stance (18 August 2026) · Car-Pass · Moniteur Automobile, technical inspection in Belgium (2026) · Royal Decree of 15 March 1968, article 23 undecies, which sets the fees. Rates recorded on 2 September 2026 from the regional scale in force since 1 January 2026. No vehicle was tested for this article: the amounts are official fees, not measurements.