An owner of commercial property has a legal duty to manage asbestos at their premises under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.  

If you are responsible for the maintenance of non-domestic premises, you have a duty to manage the asbestos in those premises. The duty is directed at those people who have responsibility for protecting others who work in the premises or who use the premises in other ways, from risk to health that exposure to asbestos causes. 

The person who holds the duty (the “Duty Holder”) must take reasonable steps to find out if there are materials containing asbestos in non-domestic premises and, if so, its amount, where it is and what condition it is in. The Duty Holder is to presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence that they do not. The Duty Holder must also make and keep up to date, a record of the location and condition of the asbestos-containing materials or materials which are presumed to contain asbestos. They must assess the risk of anyone being exposed to fibres from the materials identified and prepare a plan that sets out in detail how the risks from the materials will be managed. The Duty Holder must take the necessary steps to put the plan into action and periodically review and monitor the plan and the arrangements to act on it so that the plan remains relevant and up to date. Anyone who is to work on the materials or disturb them must receive information on the location and condition of the materials. 

Who is the Duty Holder? 

This can be the owner of the non-domestic premises or the person or organisation that has responsibility for the maintenance or repair. This can be found in a lease or contract. If there is one owner or one tenant then the Duty Holder can be easily identified. But what about a multi-occupied building? Here the owner may take responsibility, or they may share responsibility with the tenant so that the owner is responsible for the common parts and the tenant for the parts they occupy. A managing agent may take responsibility. If there is no lease or contract or if the agreement does not specify, the duty, in the case of unoccupied premises, will be placed on who has control of the premises or part of the premises, which will often be the owner. 

In public buildings, such as hospitals, schools and similar premises, the identity of the Duty Holder will depend on how the responsibility for maintenance of the premises is allocated. For most schools, the Duty Holder will be the employer. Who the employer is will depend on the type of school. For Local Authority managed schools, the employer will be the Local Authority. For Voluntary Aided and Foundation Schools, the employer will be the school governors. For Academy and Free Schools, the employer will be the Academy Trust. For Independent and Fee Paying Schools, the employer may be the proprietor, governors or trustees. 

This duty covers all non-domestic premises including industrial, commercial or public buildings, factories, warehouses, offices, shops, hospitals or public buildings and also “common areas” of domestic premises such as purpose-built flats e.g. staircases, roof spaces. 

How to comply with the duty 

• Find out if the premises contain asbestos, where it is and what is its condition;
• Assess the risk from asbestos;
• Make a plan to manage that risk and act on it;
• Provide this information to other employers who may disturb any asbestos present so that they can put in place appropriate controls when work is being done.

The duty to manage, is about putting in place the practical steps necessary to protect maintenance workers and others from the risk of exposure to asbestos fibres- not about removing them. A failure to have a plan to deal with asbestos and put it in place under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 is a breach which can lead to a fine of up to £20,000 and up to 12 months in prison. A more serious breach could lead to an unlimited fine and/or imprisonment of up to 2 years. 

Please note that a Duty Holder cannot delegate its responsibilities and therefore, if you are a Duty Holder you should pay careful attention to who provides your asbestos assessments. 

The Asbestos Regulations are enforced by HSE, Local Authorities (for retail, wholesale distribution, warehousing, hotel and catering premises, offices, consumer and leisure industries) and the Office of Rail and Road (for railway stations, depots and other rail premises). 

Asbestos is dangerous because when materials that contain asbestos are disturbed or damaged fibres are released into the air and when these fibres are inhaled, they can cause serious diseases. The diseases take a long time to develop but, once diagnosed, it is often too late to do anything. Asbestos kills around 5000 workers each year. Around 20 tradesmen die each week as a result of past exposure. Asbestos can be present in any building built or refurbished before 2000.