The Dutch KLIC dig report: what it shows — and what it doesn’t
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Digging with a machine in the Netherlands — a mini-excavator for a pond, a foundation, a new driveway — means you are legally required to file a KLIC report (graafmelding) with the Kadaster, even as a private homeowner. But the map you receive only tells half the story.
When a report is mandatory
Machine digging means filing: at least three and at most twenty working days in advance, via kadaster.nl. You then receive maps showing network operators’ cables and pipes at the spot where you want to dig.
Digging by hand does not require a report. It can still be wise: a hand auger goes straight through an internet cable. For smaller jobs there is also the Kadaster’s orientation request — the same information, without a dig report.
What the KLIC map does not show
KLIC information covers network operators’ infrastructure — roughly up to your meter cupboard or property boundary. What lies beyond that point on your own land is registered nowhere: the sewer and rainwater drain between house and street, drainage a previous owner had installed, the power cable to the shed or pond pump, the water line to the outdoor tap, the cable an installer buried conveniently out of sight.
The Kadaster says so itself: lines between your house and the property boundary may be missing from KLIC information. On your own land, you are the only registration that exists.
Everyone forgets — and that is normal
Whoever wants to plant a tree after ten years no longer remembers where the drainage pipes run. The gardener who installed the previous lighting has retired. The renovation photos are on a phone replaced twice since.
That is exactly the gap ErfPlan exists for: a practical map of your own property, where you record what you know at the moment you still know it. Pipes, cables, drainage, trees, boundaries — with photos and notes, stored locally on your own device, no account needed.
The practical approach
Machine digging? KLIC report, three to twenty working days ahead. Just a small hand job? Consider the orientation request if you want to know what is publicly registered anyway. And record everything you bury or encounter immediately — that is the only registration of your own land that will ever exist.
Share your map with the gardener or contractor before they start. It saves hassle, cost, and sometimes a severed cable.
ErfPlan is a reference map for personal use — not a replacement for an official KLIC report and not a legal survey tool. Digging without a report where one is required remains at your own risk.