How to check an asbestos removalist licence in Australian Capital Territory

Who issues it, and where to search

The ACT has a specific history here: the loose-fill asbestos insulation installed in Canberra homes in the 1960s and 1970s led to a government buyback and demolition scheme, and the Territory maintains an affected-premises register. If you are buying an older Canberra house, that register is a separate and important check.

How to check it, in order

1. 1Ask for the licence number and the exact name it is held under. It is often a company rather than the person standing in front of you, and the register searches on the name it was issued to.
2. 2Search the WorkSafe ACT site yourself. A photograph of a card proves that a licence once existed, not that it is current.
3. 3Check the class or category covers this work. A licence that is valid for one kind of work is not a licence for another, and that is the gap that most often matters.
4. 4Check the expiry date and any conditions or disciplinary history recorded against it.
5. 5Confirm the ABN on the quote matches the entity named on the licence, using ABN Lookup. A mismatch between who is licensed and who you are contracting with is worth asking about before you pay a deposit.

What the licence covers

Removing asbestos-containing material. Work health and safety law across Australia sets two classes of licence: the more restrictive one covers friable asbestos, which can be crumbled by hand, and the other covers non-friable, bonded, material above a small area.

What you can legally do yourself

Genuinely different by jurisdiction. Some allow a householder to remove a limited area of non-friable material from their own home with specified precautions; others do not. Nobody, anywhere, may remove friable asbestos without the higher class of licence. Given the stakes and the variation, the regulator named on this page is the answer rather than anything general.