The Association of Private Building Owners (VPB) warns of the financial consequences of a planned reform of the Hazardous Substances Ordinance. If the reform is implemented as planned, private building owners, especially those without expertise, could have to pay for costly pollutant testing and remediation in older buildings on their own. Corinna Merzyn, Managing Director of VPB, emphasizes: "It is unacceptable that private builders, of all people, as laypersons and the weakest link in the chain, should now have to pay alone for the contaminated sites of past decades".
According to the planned revision of Section 5a (2) of the Hazardous Substances Ordinance, work on existing buildings that were built before October 31, 1993 should either be carried out under comprehensive asbestos protection measures or through expensive measurements by experts in order to prove the absence of asbestos contamination. However, experts are rare and, according to the VPB, the measurements can be very expensive.
The VPB criticizes the fact that private building owners should bear these costs and emphasizes that the identification and professional removal of pollutants is a task for society as a whole that requires financial support.
Source: VPB
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