Asbestos Duty to Manage: What Landlords Are Responsible For

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 creates the duty to manage — and it applies to non-domestic premises.

The trap is what counts as non-domestic. It is not only offices and shops. It expressly includes:

• **The common parts of blocks of flats** — foyers, lifts, stairs, lobbies, boiler and plant rooms, roof spaces, communal yards and gardens, store rooms, outbuildings, bike shelters
• **The common parts of houses converted into flats** — entrance lobby, staircase, roof space

So the **interior of an individual flat is domestic** and falls outside the Regulation 4 duty. The **shared hallway outside its front door does not.**

In practice: a landlord who owns one flat in a block is not a duty holder for the inside of that flat. The freeholder, management company or managing agent responsible for the communal areas is a duty holder for those areas. If you own a converted house let as several flats and you control the shared staircase, that is you.

Asbestos was progressively restricted through the 1980s and 90s and **banned outright in November 1999**.

The working rule is that any building **constructed or substantially refurbished before 2000** must be **presumed to contain asbestos-containing materials** unless you hold reliable written evidence that it does not.

That presumption is the default position, not a precaution. "We have never had a problem" is not evidence. Given London's housing stock, most blocks and conversions fall into this category.

Post-2000 construction can be treated as asbestos-free, though a refurbishment that reused older materials is worth checking.

The duty is to **manage** the risk, not to remove the material. Undamaged asbestos that is left undisturbed is generally safer in place than being ripped out. Specifically:

1. **Take reasonable steps to find out** whether asbestos is present, where, and in what condition 2. **Presume materials contain asbestos** unless there is strong evidence otherwise 3. **Record what you find** — or presume — in an asbestos register 4. **Assess the risk** of anyone being exposed 5. **Prepare a written management plan** setting out how that risk will be controlled 6. **Review it regularly** and whenever something changes 7. **Give the information to anyone liable to disturb it** — contractors, maintenance staff, engineers

Point 7 is the one with the most practical bite. Anyone drilling, lifting floors or running cables in a communal area needs to know before they start. A contractor who disturbs asbestos because nobody told them creates both a serious health incident and a clear enforcement case.

The definition is deliberately broad: anyone with an obligation for the **maintenance or repair** of the premises, or who has **control** of them.

That can be the freeholder, the management company, the managing agent, the head leaseholder, or a tenant under a full repairing lease. More than one party can hold the duty at once, and a repairing obligation in a lease can transfer it without the parties ever discussing asbestos.

If your lease or management agreement makes you responsible for repairing the common parts, assume the duty is yours until you have read the documents and established otherwise.

There are two types, and the difference matters:

Management survey — the standard survey for the duty to manage. Locates asbestos that could be disturbed during normal occupation and maintenance, and assesses its condition. Non-intrusive.

Refurbishment and demolition survey — required before any work that will disturb the fabric. Intrusive, fully invasive, and the building (or the affected area) must be unoccupied. If you are planning works on a pre-2000 block, this is the one you need, and a management survey will not substitute.

Our asbestos survey starts at **£249.99 inc VAT**, with UKAS-accredited laboratory analysis of samples and a formal report within 48 hours.

If you manage a pre-2000 block anywhere across the 32 London boroughs and have no asbestos register, that is the gap worth closing first. Call 07426 409342 or book online.