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The ACT’s Office of Regulatory Services (ORS) has released a new set of guidelines relating to asbestos and the territory’s real estate sector.
The factsheet aims to provide agents, landlords and homeowners with an improved understanding of obligations surrounding asbestos management.
“Over the last few months the ORS has been assisting the real estate sector with issues such as loose-fill asbestos insulation in residential properties,” said Brett Phillips, ORS’s executive director.
“We have developed guidance material on this topic and also attended the Real Estate Institute of the ACT’s recent forum to provide information and advice.”
Australia is said to have one of the highest rates of asbestos-related disease in the world, with approximately 600 cases of mesothelioma – asbestos-related lung cancer – reported each year.
From 1945 to 1980 asbestos was a staple in a number of building products in Australia including fibro, insulation, fireproofing, paint, tiles and roofing materials, and is easily disturbed during construction or renovations.
What many agents and property managers may not realise is they have a number of legal obligations surrounding tenants’ exposure to asbestos.
The ORS agrees asbestos is a complex issue and its new guidelines are aimed at helping those in the real estate industry to better understand it.
Due to the age of many of the homes in the Canberra region and their propensity to contain asbestos, the ORS says its new guidelines are doubly important.
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