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Licensing · NSW · asbestos removalist

How to check an asbestos removalist licence in New South Wales

The short answer

SafeWork NSW is the authority for asbestos removalists in New South Wales, and the licence to look for is a asbestos removal licence, in the friable and non-friable classes. Ask for the number and the exact entity name it is held under, which is often a company rather than the person on site, then search the SafeWork NSW licence check yourself rather than accepting a photo of a card.

Checked against 5 published sources, listed in full at the end of this page. How we source this

Who issues it, and where to search

Regulator

SafeWork NSW

What the licence is called here
asbestos removal licence, in the friable and non-friable classes
Register to search
the SafeWork NSW licence checkSafeWork NSW ↗

Asbestos is the one trade here licensed by the work health and safety regulator rather than by Fair Trading, so it is a different body and a different check from every other page in this set. Disposal is separately regulated by the NSW Environment Protection Authority.

How to check it, in order

  1. Ask 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. Search the SafeWork NSW licence check yourself. A photograph of a card proves that a licence once existed, not that it is current.
  3. Check 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. Check the expiry date and any conditions or disciplinary history recorded against it.
  5. Confirm 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.

Assume anything in a house built before the late 1980s could contain asbestos: eaves, wall sheeting in wet areas, the backing board in the meter box, vinyl floor tiles and their backing, fences, and corrugated roof and wall sheeting. Australia banned all use of asbestos at the end of 2003.43

You cannot tell by looking. Identification is done by laboratory analysis of a sample taken safely, which is what a licensed assessor does, and a written identification is what a removalist, a builder and a council all work from.34

Related questions

Can I remove asbestos from my own home?
It depends on the jurisdiction and on whether the material is friable. Some allow a householder to remove a limited area of non-friable material with specified precautions and others do not; friable asbestos may never be removed without the higher class of licence anywhere. Check the regulator named on this page before touching anything.
What is the difference between friable and non-friable asbestos?
Friable asbestos can be crumbled, pulverised or reduced to powder by hand pressure when dry. Pipe lagging and some insulation, for example. Non-friable, or bonded, asbestos has the fibres held in a matrix such as cement sheeting. The distinction drives everything: which licence class is required, what controls apply, and whether a householder may do anything at all.

Sources

Every source below was fetched and its response recorded on the date shown. Where a government site blocks automated clients, that is noted rather than reported as a successful check.

  1. SafeWork NSW · SafeWork NSWChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  2. Asbestos waste · NSW Environment Protection AuthorityChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  3. Asbestos · Safe Work AustraliaChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  4. Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency · Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication AgencyChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  5. ABN Lookup · Australian Business RegisterChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK

Other trades in New South Wales:

Checking an asbestos removalist somewhere else: