Why the licence is the thing to check
Asbestos work is one of the few trades where you cannot inspect the outcome. A tiled bathroom either looks right or it does not; a removal either left fibres behind or it did not, and you will not be able to tell by looking. What you can check, before anyone starts, is whether the people doing it hold the licence the law requires for that specific work — and NSW makes that check free and public.
Licensing in NSW sits under the work health and safety regulation and is administered bySafeWork NSW. Two distinct licences matter to a homeowner: theasbestos removal licence held by the crew doing the work, and theasbestos assessor licence held by the person who monitors the air and signs off that an area is safe to re-enter. They are not the same licence, and on friable work they must not be the same people.
Three tiers of removal work
| Tier | Covers | Typical Sydney job |
|---|---|---|
| Unlicensed | Up to 10 m² of non-friable (bonded) asbestos in total. No friable, in any amount. | A couple of sheets — legally permitted, still not advised |
| Class B licence | Non-friable (bonded) asbestos only, above the 10 m² threshold. Not friable. | A fibro garage, a fence run, a shed roof, a tiled floor |
| Class A licence | Both friable and non-friable asbestos, in any quantity. A Class A holder is also authorised to carry out Class B work. | Pipe lagging, sprayed insulation, fire and storm debris, degraded material |
The rule that surprises people most: friable asbestos requires a Class A licence in any quantity. There is no small-job exemption and no square-metre threshold. One metre of crumbling pipe lagging is Class A work. Which category your material falls into is a condition assessment, not a product lookup — see friable vs bonded asbestos.
The 10 m² limit, precisely
NSW law permits an unlicensed person to remove up to 10 square metres of non-friable asbestos in total. Three details in that sentence do most of the damage when they are misread:
- "In total" means cumulative, not per job and not per weekend. Five square metres this month and six next month is not two compliant jobs; it is one non-compliant one.
- "Non-friable" is a condition, not a product. If the sheeting has degraded to the point where it crumbles, the exemption does not apply at any size.
- The exemption is a legal ceiling, not a recommendation. SafeWork NSW advises using a licensed removalist for any amount of non-friable asbestos, and anyone removing under the threshold is still required to follow the code of practice, be aware of the health risks, and provide asbestos awareness training and health monitoring to any workers involved.
We do not publish removal instructions. This page states the law so you can tell whether a quote is lawful and whether a job needs a licence. It is not a guide to doing the work yourself, and we do not recommend doing it yourself. Most of the exposure risk in a home removal is in breaking the material and in the clean-up afterwards — the two steps that go wrong most often, and the two that leave contamination behind for the next person.
The other licence: asbestos assessor
A licensed asbestos assessor is a separate SafeWork NSW licence, and the holder does three things on Class A work:
- Air monitoring of the removal area — before the work, during it, and after — which must be done before any enclosure is dismantled.
- A clearance inspection inside the enclosure once the removal is finished.
- Issuing the clearance certificate that allows the area to be reoccupied.
The enclosure cannot come down until measured respirable fibre levels are below0.01 fibres per millilitre. For friable removal the assessor must beindependent of the business that did the removal — SafeWork NSW is explicit that someone who did the work, or who is part of the business that did it, cannot issue the certificate, and that a continuing working relationship can itself defeat independence. For non-friable removal, a clearance may be issued by either a competent person or a licensed assessor.
Assessor licences run for five years, and applicants must hold the relevant training or tertiary qualification plus documented supervised experience.
Supervisors and training
Licensed removal work also carries supervision requirements, and they differ by class. An asbestos removal supervisor must be present whenever Class A (friable) removal work is carried out, and readily available to Class B (non-friable) work. Every worker doing licensed removal must hold the relevant asbestos removal training for the class of work.
This is a fair question to ask when you are comparing quotes for friable work: who is the supervisor, and will they be on site?
The rules the work is done under
Two NSW codes of practice govern this work in practice, and both are free to read:
- How to safely remove asbestos — the removal code. It covers controls, enclosures, decontamination, waste handling, air monitoring and clearance, and it includes an example clearance certificate.
- How to manage and control asbestos in the workplace — the management code, which is what sits behind asbestos registers and management plans in commercial premises.
Alongside them sit the disposal rules, which are environmental rather than work-health law: asbestos is a regulated waste stream in NSW, it must be received at a facility lawfully licensed to accept it, and moving more than 10 m² or 100 kg of asbestos waste requires tracking through the NSW EPA's WasteLocate system. See asbestos disposal for what that looks like on a job.
How to check a licence yourself
NSW publishes a free, public licence register. It takes about a minute and it is the single most useful thing you can do before accepting any asbestos quote.
- Ask for the name of the entity that holds the licence. This is the legal company or individual name, which is not always the trading name on the van or the website. A removalist who is reluctant to give you this has answered your question.
- Search that name on the register at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au (opens in a new tab).
- Check three things, not one: that the licence exists, that it iscurrent, and that its class covers the work you are asking for. A current Class B licence is no help on a friable job.
- For friable work, check the assessor separately. The assessor is a different licence and, on Class A work, must be independent of the removalist.
One caution worth knowing: business names in this industry are similar to one another, and a name that looks close to the one you were given is not the one you were given. Match it exactly.
What you should end up holding
After a lawful job, you should have:
- Disposal documentation showing the waste was received at a facility licensed to accept asbestos.
- A clearance certificate, on friable (Class A) work, issued by an independent licensed asbestos assessor.
- Air monitoring results, where monitoring was required.
- An updated asbestos register, if the property is a workplace and one exists.
Keep it. This paperwork is what you hand a buyer, an insurer or a builder later, and reconstructing it after the fact is not possible.
Where we stand
Asbestos removal is carried out by SafeWork NSW licensed asbestos removalists. XTOPIA PTY LIMITED, which operates this website, does not itself hold an asbestos licence, so always check the removalist's own licence before work starts.
There is no licence number on this website, because the business that runs it does not hold one. XTOPIA PTY LIMITED (ABN 32 115 923 432) does not appear on the SafeWork NSW register as a licence holder. The licence that matters is the one held by the removalist who does your job. Ask for the name of the licence holder on your quote and look it up on the public register (opens in a new tab)before work starts. Check that it is current and that its class covers your job.
If any of the above raises a question about your job specifically, ask us — and see asbestos removal for how the work runs, or the cost guide for what drives the price.
Where this information comes from
Licence classes, the 10 m² unlicensed threshold and its conditions, supervisor requirements, assessor functions and the independence rule are published by SafeWork NSW (opens in a new tab), which also publishes the code of practice How to safely remove asbestos (opens in a new tab). General NSW asbestos guidance is at asbestos.nsw.gov.au (opens in a new tab). Licences are searchable on the NSW public register at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au (opens in a new tab).