The Health and Safety (Asbestos) Regulations 2016 are now in force. Although the regulations were mainly aimed at the asbestos removal industry and commercial landlords; they also apply to you, the residential landlord.
As a residential landlord, you are the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) for your rental property. If you are having any work done on your rental property then it simply becomes a workplace, and you must ensure that all work carried out at the property is done so safely and without endangering workers or others, including tenants.
You have a duty to identify any asbestos and prepare an asbestos removal plan for any work involving a risk of exposure to respirable asbestos fibres. Exposure is likely to occur from dust created when drilling or cutting into asbestos-containing materials. The risk of exposure depends on the work you are planning to undertake, whether it is maintenance, renovations, refurbishments or any demolition work.
If your rental property is managed by Oxygen, and our team are arranging any maintenance or upgrade work on your behalf, we will be able to help you with your asbestos management plan and put steps in place to protect your tenants and any contractors.
If you choose to complete any work yourself and decide to employ your own contractors, you must write your own asbestos management plan and follow Worksafe’s guidance set out in the Approved Code of Practice, which can be found here. We recommend you read the policy clarification document here, and Asbestos Aware is a great resource that will help you identify what asbestos could look like, where it could be found and how it should be dealt with.
Remember, an asbestos management plan only applies when you are planning on carrying out the work, and only to the area relevant to the work creating a risk of exposure to respirable asbestos fibres.
How can you identify asbestos?
Houses constructed or renovated between 1950 and 2000 are quite likely to contain some asbestos. The diagram below shows areas where materials containing asbestos were commonly used during construction and renovation. These materials are not dangerous if they are in a good condition and remain undisturbed.
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
