Owners of residential buildings (regardless of whether they are heavy or light constructions) whose construction was authorised before 31 August 1986 may be eligible for financial aid to improve sound insulation against aircraft noise from Luxembourg airport.

There are 3 types of financial aid:

• aid for guidance and advice on sound insulation;
• aid for the monitoring and oversight of the insulation work;
• aid for the construction elements.

Who is concerned

Any owner of a house or flat meeting the required criteria for a residential building may apply for financial aid.

A commonhold association may also apply, depending on the case, for the whole building or for the communal areas in a residential building, or as a representative of one or more of the commonhold owners.

Prerequisites

To be eligible for sound insulation improvement works, the residential building must:

• be used, in whole or in part, for housing (other than hotels, educational establishments and premises used for health or social purposes);
• have had their building permit issued before 31 August 1986; and
• be located at one of the addresses identified in Annex I of the Law of 23 August 2023 introducing an aid scheme to improve the sound insulation against aircraft noise.

Preliminary steps

Guidance and advice on sound insulation

Before the beginning of any work on improving the sound insulation, you must arrange for an expert advice on improving sound insulation drawn up by a building acoustics consultant.

This advice covers the entire building and consists of a written report drawn up and signed by the building acoustics consultant. The consultant will provide you with a copy and another will be sent to the Environment Agency at subsides_bruit@aev.etat.lu.

If the building in which the improvement works are to be carried out is a commonhold residential building, advice on improvement can be requested by the commonhold association for the whole of the building.

Oversight of the work by a building acoustics consultant

The works to improve the sound insulation must be overseen by a building acoustics consultant.

The sound insulation improvement works may be carried out in one go or in several phases. For each phase, an application may be filed to receive a partial subsidy.

When the work is carried out in several phases, or differs from what was set out in the consultant's report on improving sound insulation, the acoustics consultant informs you in writing of any adaptations that may be needed.

When the work is completed, the acoustics consultant will draw up a work completion report. You will be provided with a copy of this report and another will be sent to the Environment Agency by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt and/or to subsides_bruit@aev.etat.lu.

Optional acceptance of the sound insulation improvement works

The administration may carry out an on-site acceptance inspection of the sound insulation improvement works. Within 60 days from the date on which the administration received the work completion report, the administration may schedule a date for a site visit

Once the work has been accepted, a written report will be drawn up and a copy sent to you.

Acceptance is:

• final, if the noise insulation improvement work does not give rise to observations concerning non-conformity;
• provisional, if observations are raised concerning non-conformity of the sound insulation improvement works. In this case, any instances of non-conformity are listed in a provisional acceptance report.
  In case of provisional acceptance, the listed instances of non-conformity must be remedied in order to receive the financial aid.
  The approved acoustics consultant will inform the administration by email at subsides_bruit@aev.etat.lu when the remedial work has been completed, and will request final acceptance.

Deadlines

You must submit your application for financial aid no later than 5 calendar years after the year in which the invoices for the eligible investments were issued. After this deadline, your application will be rejected.

How to proceed

Filing an application

You must submit your application(s) for financial aid to the Environment Agency using the dedicated form(s) (see 'Forms / Online services'):

• by post; or
• by email to subsides_bruit@aev.etat.lu.

When processing applications, the administration reserves the right to ask for any supporting document it deems necessary.

On the application, you must state:

• your surname;
• your first name;
• your address;
• the date and reference of the sound insulation improvement guidance and advice;
• the date and reference of the work completion report on the sound insulation works to which the application pertains;
• if applicable, the date and reference of the acceptance report.
  

Supporting documents

You must include the following supporting documents with your application:

• detailed and accurate copies of duly paid invoices;
• if the application is made through a representative, a copy of the power of attorney.

The application may be rejected if these documents are not provided.

Financial aid for guidance and advice on sound insulation

Financial aid may only be granted for one consultation per residential building.

You can obtain financial aid of EUR 100 per hour of consultation with the acoustics consultant, up to a maximum of:

• EUR 2,100 for a house;
• EUR 2,600 for a residential apartment building with two flats. A supplement of EUR 200 is offered for each additional flat, but the total must not exceed EUR 3,200.

You can apply for this financial aid even if the work is not carried out.

Financial aid for oversight and monitoring of the sound insulation improvement works

For oversight and monitoring of the improvement works, the applicant may obtain a subsidy of EUR 100 per hour of oversight or monitoring, though the total amount cannot exceed:

• EUR 2,100 for a house;
• EUR 2,600 for a residential apartment building with two flats. A supplement of EUR 200 is offered for each additional flat, but the total must not exceed EUR 3,200.

Financial aid for construction elements

You can receive a government subsidy for the following work, some of which must meet specific technical criteria:

• replacement of windows and French windows (EUR 260 per m² of window replaced);
• insulation of the new elements replacing the shutter boxes (EUR 280 per window concerned);
• installation of a controlled ventilation system (EUR 430 per habitable room);
• wallpapering and plastering (EUR 60 per window);
• roof or attic floor slab renovation (EUR 20 per m²).

The total amount of all subsidies must be no greater than EUR 16,000 for a house and EUR 8,000 for a flat.

Payment of financial aid

Financial aid is transferred directly to you.

However, where the application is filed by a representative, only in exceptional circumstances may the payments be made to the representative's own account. In such cases, the representative must transfer the allocated monies without delay to you, and inform the administration when this is done.

Repayment of financial aid

The construction elements put in place must remain in place for at least 15 years from the final acceptance of the work, otherwise the granted aid will have to be repaid.

They may however be replaced at any time with materials of equal or better acoustic quality, though no financial aid will be available for such additional improvement work.

Any payments received must also be reimbursed if obtained through knowingly false or incomplete statements made by the beneficiary.

Forms / Online services

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