Catalonia's asbestos law, explained without scaremongering

The Llei 8/2026, de 2 de juliol, de l'erradicació de l'amiant a Catalunya (Catalan Act 8/2026 of 2 July on the eradication of asbestos in Catalonia) was passed unanimously by the Catalan Parliament on 17 June 2026, published in the DOGC (Catalonia's official gazette) on 3 July and in the BOE (Spain's official gazette) under reference BOE-A-2026-17836. It came into force on 3 October 2026, three months after publication.

Its aim is to speed up the removal of the asbestos still installed in Catalonia. The fibre-cement roof census of the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC, Catalonia's mapping and geology institute) identifies some 122,460 roofs, almost 40 km² and around 700,000 tonnes; the Catalan Government estimates the total still in place at around one million tonnes once pipes, downpipes and water tanks are added. At the current pace of removal, some 20,000 tonnes a year, it would take decades.

The law sets obligations for owners, property managers, companies and public authorities. For a private owner, three matter most today: the certificate in sales and rentals, the duty to keep the property free of asbestos once it has been identified, and the ban on handling it without an authorised company.

Yes. Article 21 requires that every sale or rental of a property located in Catalonia comes with a certificate stating at least whether visible asbestos is present or absent, its condition and the potential risk. Since 3 October 2026, in Catalonia you need an asbestos certificate to sell or rent out a home.

The law does not set a construction year after which it is no longer needed. The Agència de Residus de Catalunya (ARC, the Catalan Waste Agency) especially recommends it for properties built before 2002, the year asbestos was banned in Spain, but the obligation to provide it applies to all. In a building from after 2002 asbestos is unlikely and the visit is usually quick.

In practice, notaries and the land registry have been asking for it since the first week. To avoid freezing the market, registrars have in some cases accepted it being provided after signing, with an express commitment. The safest option is to have it before signing the deposit agreement (arras) or the tenancy agreement.

The law leaves the features of the certificate and who may issue it to a future regulation. In the meantime, the ARC has published a provisional basic template and a set of FAQs. According to that template, it is issued by professionals in architecture, technical architecture, engineering and technical engineering, within their field of competence.

The inspection is visual. The template itself sums it up like this: «Visual inspection only, with no tests or sampling; limited to visible and accessible elements. It does not prevent the sale or the rental.» There is no mandatory sampling or lab analysis. In a flat, the certificate covers the home (the registered unit), not the building's common areas.

There is no register yet of technicians authorised to issue the certificate. Be wary of anyone selling you a document with supposed approvals that do not exist today: what you should ask for is a qualified technician registered with a professional body, identified by their membership number and their civil liability insurance.

The certificate is for information: the presence of asbestos does not prevent you from selling or renting out. The buyer or tenant will know before signing, and in a sale it is recorded by means of a note in the Registro de la Propiedad (land registry).

What does change is your position as the owner. Article 11 requires owners, once materials containing asbestos have been identified in their property, to keep it free of these materials, and to have any work on them done only by companies registered in the RERA (Registro de Empresas con Riesgo de Amianto, Spain's register of companies at asbestos risk). If asbestos is identified, the law requires you to keep the property free of these materials.

Cutting, drilling, breaking or transporting fibre cement without a RERA company and an approved work plan is illegal and dangerous. Penalties under health and safety at work rules are very high, and Llei 8/2026 adds its own for carrying out asbestos work without authorisation.

No. 2032 is a European reference target, not a mandatory deadline under Spanish law. It is repeated a lot in advertising, but no binding Spanish rule requires a private owner to replace their roof by that date.

What does exist is the duty in article 11: once asbestos has been identified, keep the property free of these materials. The law does not yet set a specific deadline for each type of private property, and the Catalan Government has announced a plan that prioritises public buildings. If your roof is in good condition and nobody touches it, the immediate risk is low; if it is worn, broken or you are about to do building work, it makes sense to plan the replacement and make the most of the grants.

Article 12 gives property managers (administradores de fincas) the duty to make sure the certificate is handed over and to inform owners about the grants available. As each flat's certificate does not cover the common parts, the owners' association would do well to check its downpipes, water tanks and roofs, which is where most asbestos is found in apartment buildings.

If asbestos is identified in common parts, the decision to remove it, the quote and the grant application are for the owners' meeting to decide. The property manager must always act in the association's interest: any benefit a supplier offers must go to the association, not to the manager. We have a dedicated programme on our professionals page.

The law sets out a penalty system with minor offences (€100 to €3,000), serious offences (€3,001 to €30,000) and very serious offences (€30,001 to €100,000), plus repeatable coercive fines. Not handing over the certificate is classed as a minor offence; carrying out asbestos work without authorisation, as very serious.*

*The law provides for fines for not handing over the certificate; opinions differ on whether they already apply before the implementing regulation is approved. Some websites and law firms argue that the penalty chapter will not apply until the implementing decree is approved; others treat the fines as already enforceable. Until there is a clear position, our advice is simple: don't do it out of fear of a fine, do it because the notary, the buyer and the tenant will ask you for it.

Quite a lot. The law gives the Catalan Government one year to approve the implementing regulation (procedures, rules for the certificate, sanctioning bodies) and six months to set up the Registre català d'empreses i professionals (Catalan register of companies and professionals, articles 36 and 37). Registration will be mandatory to work with asbestos in Catalonia, and it does not replace Spain's national RERA. That means around April 2027 for the register and October 2027 for the regulation.

The validity period of the certificate has not been set either. The general view is that it remains valid as long as no building work changes what was inspected, but the regulation could specify this. This table sums up where things stand:

Llei 8/2026 sits alongside national rules. Real Decreto 396/2006 (Royal Decree 396/2006) regulates work involving asbestos risk: the company must be registered in the RERA before starting, and every job needs a work plan approved by the labour authority, which has up to 45 days to decide (silence counts as approval). It also requires the paperwork to be kept for 40 years.

Ley 7/2022, de residuos y suelos contaminados (Act 7/2022 on waste and contaminated soils), in its fourteenth additional provision, required local councils to draw up a census of facilities and sites with asbestos before 10 April 2023, with a timetable that prioritises public facilities. According to 3Cat (Catalan public broadcaster), only 73 of Catalonia's nearly 950 municipalities had done so.

At European level, Directive (EU) 2023/2668 lowers the occupational exposure limit and had to be transposed by 21 December 2025. In February 2026 Spain's Ministry of Labour published a draft royal decree that would replace RD 396/2006: it provides for RERA registration to be renewed every three years and, in its article 10.2, for asbestos-containing materials to be identified before any demolition, maintenance or renovation work in buildings from before 2002. It is a draft, not a rule in force.

Yes, in Catalonia. The Agència de Residus de Catalunya offers grants per square metre of asbestos removed: in 2026, a flat €2,000 below 50 m², €40/m² from 50 to 99, €30/m² from 100 to 499, €25/m² from 500 to 999 and €20/m² from 1,000, up to €30,000 per property. The 2026 call (€10.5M) was open from 18 June to 2 July, was retroactive and worked on a first-come, first-served basis. VAT and the new roof are not eligible. In other regions of Spain, we tell you about the grants available.

Work out how much you could get with the grant calculator and, if you are selling or renting out, check whether your property needs the certificate with the free tool.