Asbestos removal for landlords and letting agents

In practice, the most common trigger for landlords is the HMO licence application. Most London boroughs — including Lewisham, Greenwich, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets — require evidence of asbestos management as a condition of licensing. This means a management survey, an asbestos register, and a written management plan. Without these documents, the licence application will be refused or deferred.

The second common trigger is refurbishment. Before any kitchen replacement, bathroom renovation, rewiring, or structural alteration, a refurbishment and demolition survey is required under CAR 2012. This is not optional. A landlord who instructs a builder to carry out refurbishment work without a prior survey, and who then discovers that the builder has disturbed asbestos, faces potential prosecution and civil liability.

Letting agents who hold management responsibility under a management agreement are in a more complex position. Where the agent has an obligation of maintenance and repair, they may hold the duty to manage alongside or instead of the landlord. The obligation follows the person with maintenance responsibility — not just the owner. Agents who are uncertain about their position should seek legal advice and, as a practical matter, ensure that the properties they manage have current asbestos registers.

A letting agent managing 14 HMOs across Lewisham and New Cross contacted us after two properties failed their HMO licence renewal — the council had flagged the absence of asbestos management plans. All 14 properties were Victorian or Edwardian terraces, converted to HMOs between the 1970s and 1990s.

We surveyed all 14 properties over three weeks. The pattern across the portfolio was consistent: asbestos cement flue pipes in the majority of properties (12 of 14), Artex on ceilings in most rooms (present in all 14), asbestos insulating board in the airing cupboards of four properties, and asbestos floor tiles under laminate flooring in six properties. None of the properties had a current asbestos register.

The letting agent's concern was disruption to tenants. We structured the work in phases: first, the flue pipes (which required access to external areas only, with no internal disruption); second, the AIB in the airing cupboards (which required a half-day per property with the airing cupboard area sealed); third, the floor tiles (which we encapsulated under new flooring in four properties where the tiles were in good condition, and removed in two where they were damaged).

The Artex was left in place in all 14 properties — it was intact, painted over, and in good condition. We recorded it in the register with a monitoring schedule and advised the agent that it should be removed before any ceiling work, not as a standalone exercise. This is the correct approach: Artex in good condition is best managed in place, not removed unnecessarily.

The letting agent received a compliant asbestos register and management plan for each property, a waste consignment note for each removal, and a portfolio summary document for the HMO licence applications. Both properties that had failed their licence renewal were re-submitted with the new documentation and licensed within six weeks.