diff --git a/include/comphelper/proparrhlp.hxx b/include/comphelper/proparrhlp.hxx
index 9093ff579f0c..b4e6ac6071fa 100644
--- a/include/comphelper/proparrhlp.hxx
+++ b/include/comphelper/proparrhlp.hxx
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ template <class TYPE>
 OPropertyArrayUsageHelper<TYPE>::~OPropertyArrayUsageHelper()
 {
     std::unique_lock aGuard(theMutex());
-    OSL_ENSURE(s_nRefCount > 0, "OPropertyArrayUsageHelper::~OPropertyArrayUsageHelper : suspicious call : have a refcount of 0 !");
+    assert(s_nRefCount > 0 && "OPropertyArrayUsageHelper::~OPropertyArrayUsageHelper : suspicious call : have a refcount of 0 !");
     if (!--s_nRefCount)
     {
         delete s_pProps;
@@ -111,12 +111,12 @@ OPropertyArrayUsageHelper<TYPE>::~OPropertyArrayUsageHelper()
 template <class TYPE>
 ::cppu::IPropertyArrayHelper* OPropertyArrayUsageHelper<TYPE>::getArrayHelper()
 {
-    OSL_ENSURE(s_nRefCount, "OPropertyArrayUsageHelper::getArrayHelper : suspicious call : have a refcount of 0 !");
     std::unique_lock aGuard(theMutex());
+    assert(s_nRefCount && "OPropertyArrayUsageHelper::getArrayHelper : suspicious call : have a refcount of 0 !");
     if (!s_pProps)
     {
         s_pProps = createArrayHelper();
-        OSL_ENSURE(s_pProps, "OPropertyArrayUsageHelper::getArrayHelper : createArrayHelper returned nonsense !");
+        assert(s_pProps && "OPropertyArrayUsageHelper::getArrayHelper : createArrayHelper returned nonsense !");
     }
     return s_pProps;
 }
diff --git a/include/svtools/toolboxcontroller.hxx b/include/svtools/toolboxcontroller.hxx
index 526cadb3321b..5454406c6875 100644
--- a/include/svtools/toolboxcontroller.hxx
+++ b/include/svtools/toolboxcontroller.hxx
@@ -45,6 +45,14 @@ namespace weld { class Toolbar; }
 
 class ToolBox;
 
+namespace svt
+{
+    class ToolboxController;
+}
+
+// extern template otherwise the ref-counting magic here ends up duplicated across multiple libraries
+extern template class SAL_DLLPUBLIC_TEMPLATE comphelper::OPropertyArrayUsageHelper<svt::ToolboxController>;
+
 namespace svt
 {
 
diff --git a/svtools/source/uno/toolboxcontroller.cxx b/svtools/source/uno/toolboxcontroller.cxx
index 4583e88d849e..bd6f61949f81 100644
--- a/svtools/source/uno/toolboxcontroller.cxx
+++ b/svtools/source/uno/toolboxcontroller.cxx
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ using namespace css::beans;
 using namespace css::lang;
 using namespace css::frame;
 
+template class comphelper::OPropertyArrayUsageHelper<svt::ToolboxController>;
+
 namespace svt
 {