The house is done. The keys are cut, the client wants to move in on Saturday, and the only thing standing between them and the front door is a file. If that file is short one report, the building cannot be used, and the clock that lets it be used has not even started. This is the gereedmelding, and it is a gate, not a formality.
Since 1 January 2024, buildings in gevolgklasse 1, which is roughly single-family homes and smaller commercial work, fall under the Wet kwaliteitsborging voor het bouwen. The Wkb changed who checks the work and when. It also changed what has to be true before anyone turns a key.
The gereedmelding is a gate
Before a gevolgklasse 1 building can be put into use, the developer files a gereedmelding with the bevoegd gezag, at least 2 weeks in advance. That notification carries two things: the dossier bevoegd gezag and the declaration from the kwaliteitsborger, the independent assurance provider.
Here is the part that catches people. If the gereedmelding is incomplete, the municipality tells you, and the building cannot be used. The 2-week term before the building is put into use only starts once all of the information has been received. So a missing certificate on filing day does not cost you an afternoon. It resets the calendar, with the client already holding the keys.
What "complete" actually means
The dossier bevoegd gezag is not the design file. It is the as-built record: drawings and reports that show what was actually built meets the technical rules of the Bbl. It includes the things the bevoegd gezag needs to read the building: the use functions, the occupancy areas and rooms, their dimensions and how many people they hold. Not the intent on paper. What stands there.
That "what stands there" is why the dossier cannot be written at the end. The evidence for a detail that gets covered over, a fire-resistant junction, a bit of structure, has to be captured while it is still open, not reconstructed from memory two weeks before gereedmelding.
The declaration the assurance provider cannot fake
The second half of the gereedmelding is the declaration from the kwaliteitsborger. In it the kwaliteitsborger declares a gerechtvaardigd vertrouwen, a justified confidence, that the finished building meets the building regulations. That word "justified" is doing the work. The kwaliteitsborger signs on the evidence gathered at each borgingsmoment during the build, not on goodwill.
The declaration is not a stamp you collect at the end. It is the kwaliteitsborger putting their name to the evidence you gave them along the way.
So the dossier and the declaration are the same story told twice: the file is the proof, and the declaration is the kwaliteitsborger confirming the proof adds up. Neither can be improvised on the deadline.
The whole notification calendar, not one date
The gereedmelding is the last of several fixed moments, and they are easier to hold together when you can see them all at once. The bouwmelding goes in at least 4 weeks before work starts. You inform the bevoegd gezag at least 2 working days before the build actually begins, and again within 1 working day of it stopping. Only then comes the gereedmelding, 2 weeks before use.
Read as a list it looks like admin. Read as a rhythm it is the point of the Wkb: the file is assembled across the whole job, moment by moment, so that gereedmelding is a summary of work already proven, not a scramble to prove it.
Where the Netherlands sits in Europe
A wider direction, honestly framed
The Wkb moved the Netherlands away from the bevoegd gezag pre-checking a design, toward an independent kwaliteitsborger proving the finished work. Documented, independent proof of what was actually built is the direction building oversight has been heading across Europe, and the Netherlands is early to it rather than alone in it. Because the evidence can sit on an IFC model, a vendor-neutral openBIM standard used right across the continent, it stays in a format that travels between tools and borders. BimDossier is built for Dutch Wkb work today and does not check another country's building code.
Where we come in
BimDossier is not an approved Wkb instrument and does not replace the kwaliteitsborger. What it does is keep the file honest as you build. A dossier checklist, built from a template for the building type and gevolgklasse, shows exactly which documents the dossier bevoegd gezag still needs, with one completeness percentage so you never guess. The deadline tracker turns the bouwmelding and gereedmelding into dates it watches for you. Findings and photos pin to the element on your model, so the evidence has a place to live instead of a folder nobody can search. Certificates carry their expiry. And the borgingsplan, the declaration and the full dossier package come out as clean PDFs when you need them.
The kwaliteitsborger still forms the judgement and signs the declaration. That is theirs. Our job is to make sure that when they look, the proof is already there, on your model, from bouwmelding to gereedmelding, so filing day is just another day.