Health and safety on a Spanish demolition site: study, plan and coordinator

Which law governs health and safety on a demolition in Spain?

Real Decreto 1627/1997 sets the minimum health and safety provisions for construction works in Spain, and demolitions are construction works for this purpose. It defines three key documents and one key role: the safety study, the basic safety study, the contractor's safety plan and the safety coordinator.

Work with asbestos has its own regulation. Real Decreto 847/2026, de 21 de octubre, published in the BOE on 23 October 2026, sets the minimum rules for work with exposure to asbestos and has been in force since late October 2026. It repealed Real Decreto 396/2006, which is no longer in force, and transposes Directive (EU) 2023/2668.

The Instituto Nacional de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (INSST) publishes technical guidance on construction works that técnicos and contractors use to apply these rules in practice.

Safety study or basic safety study: which applies to your demolition?

Every demolition has one of the two. The estudio de seguridad y salud is the full version; the estudio básico de seguridad y salud is a simplified one. Which applies depends on the budget of the works, their duration and the number of workers involved. The thresholds are set in Real Decreto 1627/1997; your técnico applies them to your job.

Both are drafted by a técnico competente as part of the technical documentation. They identify the risks of the specific demolition – falls from height, partial collapse, falling objects, dust, noise, machinery, buried services – and the measures to prevent them. A good study is specific: it names the party walls, the street, the access route and the sequence, rather than listing generic hazards.

What is the contractor's plan de seguridad y salud?

The plan de seguridad y salud is the contractor's own document. It takes the study (or basic study) and adapts it to the contractor's actual methods, equipment and team: which machines will be used, how the exclusion zones are set up, who works at height and with what protection, how dust is controlled, how the waste is loaded.

The plan is prepared before the works start and is kept up to date if the method changes. As an owner you do not write it, but you can ask to see it; it tells you a lot about how seriously a contractor approaches the job. On our sites the plan reflects the technique chosen for each phase – manual, mechanical or combined – and the sorting of materials on site.

When does the promotor have to appoint a safety coordinator?

When more than one company, or one company plus self-employed workers, take part in the works, the promotor appoints a coordinador de seguridad y salud for the execution phase. The coordinator makes sure the different parties' activities do not create risks for each other and supervises the application of the plan.

Demolitions trigger this more often than owners expect. Typical combinations in the provincia de Málaga:

• demolition contractor plus a RERA-registered asbestos company;
• demolition contractor plus a separate haulage or crushing company;
• demolition followed immediately by a builder starting foundations on the same plot;
• utilities companies working on disconnections while the site is open.

The promotor is the party commissioning the works – in a private demolition, usually the owner. When the property belongs to several heirs or to a company, confirm with your técnico who acts as promotor before appointing anyone. Who can be coordinator, and whether the técnico who wrote the study can take on the role, is something your técnico explains for your case (to be verified).

What does safety look like on an actual demolition site?

Documents only matter if they change what happens on site. On a typical house or building demolition, the safety measures you should expect to see include:

• A closed perimeter: fencing or barriers keeping neighbours, passers-by and the owner's visitors out of the work zone.
• Utilities confirmed off before any structural work: electricity, water and gas supplies cancelled or disconnected.
• Hazardous materials removed first: asbestos-cement elements taken out by the RERA-registered company under its approved plan de trabajo before the general demolition.
• Top-down sequence for structures, so nothing above is left unsupported.
• Dust control with water spray or mist while breaking and loading, especially near homes and gardens.
• Exclusion zones around machines – no one inside the reach of an excavator arm or a breaker.
• Protection of party walls and adjoining buildings as specified by the técnico.
• Orderly sorting areas, so wood, metal, rubble and other fractions do not pile up into trip and collapse hazards.

The photo shows a crusher attachment on a reinforced-concrete building with water spray keeping dust down – the kind of control a safety plan describes in words.

Asbestos: a separate safety regime

If the building contains asbestos – most often as uralita roof sheets, water tanks, pipes or flues – those materials can only be removed by a company registered in the RERA (Registro de Empresas con Riesgo por Amianto), under a plan de trabajo approved by the autoridad laboral of the province where the work takes place, with the start of works notified in advance. In Andalusia the RERA is kept by the Junta de Andalucía and work plans are approved by the provincial Delegación Territorial of the labour department.

On our jobs the asbestos removal is carried out by a RERA-registered company working as our subcontractor; it prepares and files the plan de trabajo, and we coordinate the rest of the demolition. Asbestos waste is handled separately, never mixed with other rubble, and delivered to an authorised manager under code 17 06 05*. For the full picture, see our sister site's guide to who approves an asbestos work plan.

Neighbours, the street and third parties

Health and safety rules protect workers first, but a demolition also affects people who have nothing to do with the job. In urbanizaciones and town centres on the Costa del Sol, the risks to third parties usually come from four directions:

• Shared or adjoining walls, where a careless cut can damage the neighbour's property; the técnico defines how these walls are protected or propped.
• The public road, where skips, lorries and loading operations need authorisation to occupy the vía pública and a safe layout for pedestrians.
• Gardens and pools next door, exposed to dust, debris and vibration; water spray and the direction in which elements are brought down limit the impact.
• Community areas in a propiedad horizontal, where the community must be informed before structural or façade elements are demolished and works on common elements need the owners' meeting agreement.

Telling neighbours the dates and the contact number of the site manager before work starts prevents most conflicts. When you are abroad, ask the contractor to do it on your behalf and confirm it in writing.

Emergency and unsafe buildings: safety comes first

When a building is partly collapsed, cracked or threatening the street, the safety logic changes. The priority becomes stabilising or removing the danger: closing off the area, propping if possible, and taking down the unstable parts in a controlled way. The documentation still exists, but it is prepared around the urgency.

What owners abroad can do immediately is limited but important: tell the town hall if you have been notified, appoint a técnico who can inspect, make sure the site is closed to the public and give the contractor access. Our page on emergency and unsafe buildings describes how we work in these situations, and the guide on ruin declarations and enforcement orders explains the administrative side.

Your role as owner when you are not in Spain

Being abroad does not remove the promotor's duties. A practical approach:

1. Make sure a técnico prepares the safety study or basic study as part of the documentation.
2. Ask the contractor for its safety plan before the start date and check it covers asbestos, party walls and street access.
3. Appoint the coordinator when several companies are involved, and keep their contact details at hand.
4. Do not visit the site unannounced during works, and tell family members or neighbours with keys the same.
5. Ask for regular photo updates showing the perimeter, the sorting areas and progress.

That is how we run jobs for owners abroad: documented method, a safety plan per phase and photo reports in English. Our remote management service explains the reporting, and building demolition covers the technical side.