Asbestos in shared buildings
Find the duty-holder before you commission another survey.
The asbestos duty follows responsibility for maintenance and repair. In a block of flats it normally reaches the common parts, not the inside of each private flat.
Start with scope
Which parts of the building and which organisation are covered?
Map the common parts
The duty can cover foyers, corridors, stairs, lifts, roof spaces, gardens and garages in multi-occupied domestic premises. Individual flats are outside this particular duty-to-manage rule.
Read the maintenance and repair arrangements
The duty-holder may be the owner, landlord, management company, agent or another person with contractual responsibility or control. Responsibility can be shared.
Do not rely on the building age alone
Take reasonable steps to establish whether asbestos-containing materials are present, where they are and what condition they are in. If evidence is insufficient, the regulations require an appropriate presumption.
Match the survey to the work
A management survey and a refurbishment or demolition survey answer different questions. The planned work and areas likely to be disturbed determine the survey scope.
Build the record
A survey is evidence. The management plan is the control.
Record location and condition
Keep an accessible asbestos register or equivalent record that identifies known or presumed materials and their condition.
Assess the risk of disturbance
Condition matters, but so do access, normal activity, maintenance and planned work. A material left in place still needs a managed decision.
Set the management action
Record how the risk will be controlled, who owns each action and when the plan will be checked. HSE guidance says the management plan should be reviewed at least every 12 months and sooner where necessary.
Give information before work starts
People liable to disturb the material need the relevant location and condition information before they drill, open up, maintain or refurbish.
Before disturbing material
Licensing depends on the material and the work.
Do not call every job licensed work
HSE separates licensed, notifiable non-licensed and non-licensed work. The category depends on the material, its condition, the task and the likely exposure.
Check the person and the task
Use a surveyor or contractor with the training, experience and capability required for the actual work. A company badge is not a substitute for checking scope and competence.
Pause if unexpected material is found
Do not let an incomplete register become permission to continue. Secure the area and obtain competent advice before disturbing suspected asbestos.
Sources for this page
Open the law and guidance yourself.
Current HSE route for identifying the duty-holder, locating materials, keeping records and managing the risk.
↗HSE scopeWho has the duty?HSE guidance on contractual responsibility, control, shared duties and common parts of multi-occupied domestic premises.
↗Primary lawControl of Asbestos Regulations 2012, regulation 4The duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises.
↗HSE survey guideAsbestos: The survey guide HSG264Official guidance on management, refurbishment and demolition surveys.
↗HSE work categoriesLicensable and non-licensable workHSE's decision route for classifying asbestos work before it starts.
↗Links and current-law position checked 18 August 2026. Apply the governing documents, building facts and current law to the case in front of you.
Take the next step in LEASE-iQ
What does the lease allocate, and what belongs to safety law?
Use this for access, repair, cost recovery and document responsibility, not for a safety verdict.
Keep checking: LEASE-iQ cannot assess physical safety or professional competence. Use it to find the document route and make the safety evidence gap visible.
