The situation
A renovation of buildings constructed before asbestos was banned
A facilities group is renovating two 1970s office buildings, one in Rotterdam and one in Hanover. Ceilings, floor coverings and the old heating plant will be stripped out. The EHS lead has to tell the project managers what the law requires before any contractor touches a ceiling tile.
The rules are dense and partly technical. The hours go on separating what the statute requires from what the technical rules say, finding who carries each duty, client or contractor, and checking what changed after the EU tightened the exposure limit.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Find it before you disturb it
- EU law requires employers to take all necessary steps to identify materials presumed to contain asbestos before demolition or maintenance work, if necessary by obtaining information from the owner.
- The Netherlands: certified inventory and removal
- Dutch law requires an asbestos inventory by a certified firm before demolition or renovation that may disturb asbestos, and removal by a certified remover. The removal is notified to the competent authority before it starts.
- Germany: the client now has to inform
- German hazardous-substances rules were amended in 2024 so that the client must give the contractor the information it holds on possible asbestos, including the building’s construction date. The detailed work methods are in technical rules, which azta does not hold.
- The EU exposure limit is coming down
- An EU directive adopted in 2023 lowers the occupational exposure limit for asbestos in stages and moves to more sensitive measurement. The research confirms how each country has transposed it and from when.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Renovating two 1970s office buildings in Rotterdam and Hanover, removing ceilings, floor tiles and boiler insulation. What must the client and the contractors do about asbestos before and during the work in each country: survey, notification, certified firms and worker protection?
You start with
A renovation of buildings constructed before asbestos was banned
- 01
Describe the buildings and the works
Give the construction dates, what will be removed and who does the work. azta searches the EU asbestos directive and the Dutch and German legislation.
Cited research· Free - 02
Check what is in force
Open the cited provisions in the reader and compare versions to see what the recent amendments changed.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Draft the note per building
Ask for a note in three parts, before, during and after the works, with the client’s and the contractors’ duties separated. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Export for the project managers
Export the note to Word and keep the cited research with the project file.
Word export· Pro You send
A note of the statutory asbestos duties for the client and the contractors
What you get
A note of the statutory asbestos duties for the client and the contractors
Internal note · draft
Asbestos duties: Rotterdam and Hanover renovations
Rotterdam. Before work starts, a certified firm carries out an asbestos inventory of the areas to be renovated. Asbestos found is removed by a certified remover after notification to the competent authority. The project manager does not release an area to the fit-out contractor until the clearance is in the file.
Hanover. We give each contractor what we know about the building, including its construction date, before they price the work. The contractors carry out their own risk assessment, follow the technical rules for asbestos work and notify the authority before starting.
Both sites. Workers who may be exposed are trained before they start, and exposure is measured and recorded. The lower exposure limits apply as each country’s transposition takes effect, and we will update this note when they do.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
20 minutes a month
At €85 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 29
- Capacity at your rate
- €2,448
- More asbestos-duty notes a quarter
- 1.4
- Return on Pro
- 7.6×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Gesetze im Internet
What stays with you
- The survey results and the contractors’ method statements.
- Technical rules and certification schemes, which azta does not hold.
- Choosing the certified firms and signing off the note.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta hold TRGS 519 or the Dutch certification schemes?
- No. It holds national legislation and EU law, not technical rules or certification schemes. It names the legislation that refers to them, so you know where to look.
- Can it tell me whether a material contains asbestos?
- No. Only a survey and laboratory analysis can. azta tells you what the law requires before, during and after the survey.
- Can I check the rules that applied to an earlier renovation?
- Yes. Give the date and azta focuses on the law in force then.
