A shop or office strip-out answers to a register first

The register comes first

The duty is short and it lands before the work, not during it. The national model code of practice for demolition work states that the business which will do the demolition or refurbishment at a workplace has to get the asbestos register, in a copy, from the party that manages or controls that workplace, before work starts. The model demolition code. The same duty sits in the state codes of practice: Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia each state it in their own words, and in Victoria whoever manages or controls the workplace has to review that register before the work starts and revise it if it does not suit what is proposed. The Victorian compliance code.

Where there is no register, the work does not simply begin. Queensland’s rule is that the business carrying out the demolition, refurbishment, maintenance or service work must not start until the structure or plant has been inspected to find out whether asbestos or ACM is present. Queensland’s registers for workplaces. Victoria words the same duty from the worker’s side: the employer or self-employed person doing the demolition or refurbishment cannot begin before establishing whether the building, structure, ship or plant holds asbestos. The Victorian regulations.

In Victoria, the regulations’ demolition and refurbishment division covers that work at a workplace where the building, structure, ship or plant being worked on has asbestos present, or where asbestos has been identified elsewhere at that workplace. Other regulations tie these duties to a building’s age. The national regulations apply the demolition and refurbishment part to a structure or plant built or installed before 31 December 2003 The model WHS Regulations, and the same date is written into the Western Australian, South Australian, Northern Territory and ACT regulations. Tasmania’s own statement of the rule is at the door of the workplace: workplaces built before 2004 must prepare, keep and update an asbestos register. WorkSafe Tasmania’s asbestos facts page.

What the register holds, and who keeps it current

A register is not a formality. Victoria’s building and workplace asbestos service describes it as something created once asbestos is identified in a workplace Asbestos registers, Victorian Government, and lists what it must be kept current with: the location of the asbestos, whether the material is friable or non-friable, the condition it is in, and details of where any asbestos that is not fixed or installed is located and likely to have come from, across all the inaccessible areas that may contain it.

Queensland puts the register under review. It must be kept up to date and be readily accessible to workers and others at the workplace, and it must be reviewed at least once every five years, or earlier if the asbestos or ACM has been disturbed, removed, sealed or enclosed. Queensland’s registers for workplaces. Queensland also requires a management plan for identified or assumed asbestos, and that plan is reviewed on the same five-yearly rhythm, or sooner when the asbestos is disturbed, sealed or enclosed.

Behind all of it sits identification. Queensland states that whoever manages or controls a workplace must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that a competent person identifies all asbestos or ACM at the workplace The Queensland Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011. Queensland adds that asbestos assumed to be present at a workplace counts as identified there. Victoria gives the alternative openly: where there is uncertainty on reasonable grounds, or inaccessible areas that likely hold asbestos, the person managing or controlling the workplace has to assume it is present, or arrange for a sample to be analysed.

Who answers for the work itself

Three duties follow the register into the job. The first is the licence: a business that commissions the removal of asbestos at a workplace must ensure the work is done by a licensed asbestos removalist, licensed for that work. The Queensland regulation. The second is planning: construction work that will involve, or is likely to involve, asbestos being disturbed is high-risk construction work, and the business doing it must have a safe work method statement ready before the work begins. The model demolition code.

The third is notice to the regulator, and the clock differs by state. The national rule asks a licensed removalist for written notice at least five days before the work starts The model WHS Regulations. NSW states five calendar days SafeWork NSW, South Australia five days SafeWork SA, the Northern Territory five days, in writing NT WorkSafe, and Tasmania five days, in writing. The Tasmanian regulations. In Victoria the clock shortens for a small job: removing non-friable ACM of no more than 10 square metres in a building, structure, ship or plant needs notice at least 24 hours ahead, and any other removal work five days. The Victorian compliance code. The ACT keeps the five days for a licensed removalist ACT regulations, and adds a duty for owners of affected loose-fill homes, below.

The same job at home

A home is the control case, and the regulators say plainly what changes. When a business is engaged to demolish or refurbish a home, the home becomes that business’s workplace, and the business must identify and remove any asbestos likely to be disturbed by the work, before the work starts. A home is not required to keep a register; a survey by a competent person before the demolition or refurbishment stands in its place, and the work health and safety regulations place no duties on the homeowner. The model code on managing asbestos in the workplace. Queensland states the same conclusion in one line, and NSW repeats it for its own jurisdiction.

The ACT adds a duty for owners of affected loose-fill homes. For the ACT’s affected loose-fill properties, homeowners must give at least five business days’ notice to WorkSafe ACT of intended maintenance or building work that may disturb asbestos contamination in the roof space, the wall cavity or the sub-floor area ACT Loose Fill Asbestos Coordination, and whoever undertakes that work at affected residential premises, or engages someone to do it, must tell the regulator at least five business days before the day it begins.

In Victoria, the regulations apply their asbestos removal division to domestic premises that become a workplace because asbestos removal work is being performed there.

One more building type sits between them: the block of units. A body corporate manages the common property, including its asbestos risks, and where it hires a professional tradesperson it is treated as a business for work health and safety purposes, with those laws applying. The body corporate guidance. For common areas built before 31 December 2003, the duties may also include preparing, maintaining and reviewing an asbestos register and a management plan, and the body corporate should also make sure any removalist it engages holds a current licence suited to the asbestos being removed.

The other permission a fit-out may need

The asbestos register is one question; the planning system is another. In NSW, complying development covers homes, businesses and industry, and allows a range of things including alterations and additions to a house, demolition of a building, and changes to a business use. NSW Planning on complying development. In South Australia, a shop fit-out appears in the state’s planning guidance as an example of accepted development: minor projects that must be structurally sound. PlanSA on assessment pathways. Neither of those lines says anything about asbestos, and neither replaces the register; they are the other desk the same job visits.

Where licensed removal work has been done, a clearance certificate follows it, and who may sign one differs from state to state. The last guide in the strip-out takes the same room from the end of the work, when the sheets are out and the question is when the space may be used again. When the room is safe to use again.