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HOuse renovation workers from abroad
Hello everybody,
renovation work awaits - internall stuff, nothing complicated, but a thorough affair of 5-6 weeks. Have you experience of doing something similar and saving on labour costs with workers from other Eu countries? probably your home country, I suppose. What constraints or conditions are there for a group of 4-5 arriving herem working for a month and leaving, not establishing themselves businesswise in Belgium at all?
thanks!
You should be fine.
However, I would advise that any electrical work is done by a local company. In any case, even if your foreign guys do it, the new installation will still have to be certified by a Belgian company, otherwise you'll be breaking the law.
http://economie.fgov.be/fr/binaries/folder_electricity_security_fr_002_t...
http://economie.fgov.be/fr/binaries/Lijst_erkende_controleorganismen_Ele...
And your house insurance may be invalid if there is an electrical fire. It is also the case with gas installations, but I don't know the details.
In fact, you would be well advised to have anything that has to be maintained, water, electricity, gas, etc., done by local workers. This will ensure that the work is done to the norms here, rather than those of your workers' home country. This won't seem that important until you have a problem, a serious leak for instance, and the workman you call out here takes one look and says "I just don't understand what they have done here - and anyway they have used ............ that I can't get replacements for here.
If your 'cousin' and 3 or 4 of his friends come here to help you with some work in your house there will be no problem.
However, in addition to the problems already mentioned above, you will pay 21% VAT on all the equipment needed rather than the lower rate that will be charged on an official Belgian invoice - unless the house is fairly modern (under 5 years old I think). You also have to pay their travel expenses and accommodation whilst they are here.
It is not clear cut that you will save much if anything.
Mikka you can find builder who aren't Belgian nationals and some are a lot cheaper than Belgian locals. That said you have to be able to communicate with them, buying stuff and getting it delivered can be a pain with smaller firms we discovered to our costs, you can end up paying over the odds as far as price from DIY shops.
I'm not sure how they would be insured if they are not local? Also they would need to declare this money somewhere and Belgium tax law is very complex.
So I'm not saying don't do it but be clear about insurance etc before you embark on this
