What does asbestos mean in a home survey?

Where does HSE say asbestos can occur in a house?

HSE says asbestos can be found in any industrial or residential building built or refurbished before 2000. The guidance is for Great Britain. If you are buying in England or Wales, that is the relevant safety body. The sentence is “can be found”, not “will be found”. A pre-2000 house is a reason for the surveyor to look and to comment. It is not proof that a particular ceiling, soffit or tank contains asbestos.

HSE’s diagrams put possible asbestos in textured coatings, cement goods, insulating board and lagging, among other places. Cement may be in roof sheets, flues, tanks, soffits and gutters. Insulating board may be in ceiling tiles, partition walls, panels around boilers, airing cupboards and behind fires. Lagging may be on boilers and pipes. Textured coatings may be on ceilings and walls. A home survey can point at these locations from age and appearance. It does not sample them.

Why are coatings, cement, board and lagging different risks?

HSE does not treat every asbestos-containing material as the same job. Work on textured coatings is described as low-risk when the material is not broken up on a large scale, and it still is not a task to invent for yourself on the day you get the keys. Asbestos cement is generally a lower risk while it stays intact. Breaking sheets, dropping a roof, or working on badly damaged cement changes that. Insulating board is a step up: some very limited maintenance can be non-licensed work, but most removal, and work on board in poor condition, is for a licensed contractor.

Lagging is the clear high-risk material in that list. HSE says most work on asbestos lagging must be done by a licensed contractor, because disturbance releases fibres easily. Sprayed coatings and loose fill, where they occur, are also in the high-risk group. None of this is a removal price, and none of it is an instruction to take a sample home in a jar.

Why does a home survey not test for asbestos?

A RICS home survey is a visual inspection of the building you are buying. It is not a laboratory asbestos survey. The surveyor may say that a material is of an age and type that can contain asbestos. They should not claim a test they did not do. If you need to know, the next person is someone competent to sample and to have the sample analysed. That person is not you, with a knife, on a second viewing.

Do not sample it yourself. Breaking the material is how fibres get into the air. HSE’s location guidance is about taking the right action once asbestos is suspected: stop, do not improvise, and match the action to the material. For a purchase in England or Wales, that usually means leaving intact suspect material alone, telling your solicitor what the survey said, and deciding whether a proper asbestos survey is needed before you exchange. A rating in the home survey is not that asbestos survey.

What should you ask when the report mentions asbestos?

Ask where it is, what it looks like, and whether it is damaged. Intact cement on a garage roof is a different conversation from damaged lagging in a cupboard. The surveyor has not tested either of them.

• Which material do you suspect, and where is it?
• Did you see damage, or is it intact?
• Are you saying it may contain asbestos, or that it was tested? A home survey does not test it.
• What should be left alone until a competent person advises?
• Do you want an asbestos survey before exchange, or only if we disturb the material later?

Common questions