What is an asbestos clearance certificate

An asbestos clearance certificate is a written statement from a licensed asbestos assessor that the removal area can be re-occupied after specified asbestos removal work — typically after friable (Class A) removal, and in other cases where the WHS rules require it. This website does not issue clearance certificates. We do not print them, backdate them, or sell a PDF with a logo on it.

Engage a licensed asbestos professional for the removal. Engage a licensed asbestos assessor for the clearance where the job requires one. They are not always the same person, and they should not be treated as a formality you skip because the van has left.

Who issues it — and who does not

Safe Work Australia’s public WHS pages describe licensed asbestos assessors and clearance in the context of licensed removal. The live licence sits with the state or territory regulator. This site is a publisher. See about us and experience and qualifications.

A removalist’s invoice is not a clearance certificate. A laboratory bulk-sample result is not a clearance certificate — that result identifies asbestos in a sample taken before or during scoping, not the air and surfaces after the job. A council stamp is not clearance. A text message that says “all good” is not clearance.

If someone offers to email you a clearance from asbestosremoval.com.au, that offer is false. We will not do it.

When homeowners hear the word

Class A / friable jobs are the usual conversation: air monitoring during the work and a clearance inspection before the enclosure comes down. Some non-friable jobs also involve an assessor. Do not treat this paragraph as a complete list of when the law requires one. Read Safe Work Australia — WHS duties and the code of practice used in your state. If a sentence here disagrees with those pages, follow the regulator.

Friable versus bonded is explained — without a DIY test — in friable versus non-friable asbestos. You cannot decide that a job “won’t need clearance” from a photo.

What clearance is for

It is evidence that the removal area was inspected (and, where required, air-monitored) and met the clearance standard used for that job. It speaks to that area at that time. It does not certify the rest of the house. It does not certify a bathroom that was not in the scope. It does not replace a workplace asbestos register. It does not make medical claims about anyone’s health.

Keep the document if you receive one. Buyers sometimes ask for it later — see asbestos when buying or selling a home. A clearance from last decade does not speak for an eave nobody touched in the same job.

How this sits beside testing and disposal

Testing identifies asbestos in a bulk sample. Should you get asbestos testing done is the before-you-cut question. Clearance is the after-the-cut question on the jobs that require it. Disposal is a third question: approved facility, not a mixed skip — asbestos collection and disposal. A waste docket is not a clearance certificate either, though you should still keep it.

How to ask for the right person

When you hire, ask who the licensed assessor will be on a Class A job, and verify that licence as well as the removalist’s. See how to choose a licensed asbestos removalist. Do not accept a structure where the only “assessor” is an unnamed mate with a pump.

Request a licensed assessment via contact us or [email protected] if you need an introduction. We will still not issue clearance. Always engage a licensed asbestos professional. Never DIY.

Read Safe Work Australia, ASEA, and your state asbestos site.

If you only have a laboratory bulk-sample page from before the reno, that is useful scoping evidence. It is still not clearance. If you only have a waste docket, keep it, and still ask whether an assessor attended. If nobody can name the assessor, treat that as information.

City hubs will not sell you a certificate either: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide.

Official reading

• Safe Work Australia — WHS duties
• Safe Work Australia — asbestos
• ASEA
• State regulator licence registers for assessors and removalists

Who issues clearance — and who does not

A licensed asbestos assessor issues clearance where the WHS rules require it, typically on Class A / friable work after air monitoring. This website does not issue clearance certificates, does not hold a removal licence, and will not invent a template you can print. If a pile has left the driveway and nobody can show you the assessor’s paperwork on a job that needed it, you do not yet have clearance. Ask the licensed professional — then read the regulator’s page, not a blog form.

A waste docket proves material went to an approved facility. It is not the same document as a clearance certificate. Do not let the two words collapse. Ask which one you are holding, and who signed it.