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Amid National Asbestos Awareness Week, a network’s head of property management has outlined the role property managers play in guiding landlords and tenants on disclosure, safety, and compliance to reduce asbestos risks.
Property managers have a key role in minimising asbestos risks to tenants by assisting landlords through the disclosure process, according to LJ hooker head of property management ANZ, Cathie Crampton.
As of 2025, Asbestos remains present in 1 in 3 Australian homes, with more than 4,000 Australian lives lost every year from related diseases.
While undisturbed asbestos does not necessarily pose a health risk, when damaged, its loose fibres can be a serious threat to residents.
Loose-fill asbestos has been considered to be the most hazardous form of the material, as it is raw, crushed asbestos that can easily become airborne fibres.
To check whether a property has been identified to contain loose-fill asbestos, tenants are able to search for the premises on NSW's Loose-fill Asbestos Insulation register.
According to state guidelines, if a property has been listed on the site, landlords or property managers must disclose this to prospective tenants or must inform them later if the dwelling is found on the register.
Crampton said that while it is primarily the owner’s responsibility to disclose the presence of asbestos to prospective tenants, property managers should also inquire about it during their documentation process.
“The property manager's role is to be the facilitator to create the solutions should there be an issue,” she said.
“Asbestos is probably in a majority of rental properties that are built pre-1985, and so the only time it's an issue is if it's disturbed. If it's been disturbed, it's going to be on a register.”
Crampton added that if the asbestos had not yet been disturbed, the tenant needed to seek permission before making modifications that could pose a hazard.
“Let's say they want to drill a hole in the wall to hang a picture, that's already legislated that they need to seek that type of permission for anything that's not a minor modification,” she said.
“It is in everyone's best interest for any modification to a property that everybody goes through a channel of transparency.”
She also said that, if required, a property manager needed to ensure a proper tradesperson was contacted for the job.
When it comes to disclosure, Crampton said that there may be excessive regulation, making it challenging for property managers to support both owners and tenants effectively.
“It's important to be very clear where the legal encumbrance sits – it does not sit with the property manager. The role of the property manager is to be the facilitator, the advisor, to effectively give guidance,” she said.
“It is not incumbent upon them to know everything about the property, but they should ask questions of the owner, and the tenant should ask questions before making modifications.”
Crampton said there had been a recent push by the government to shift more housing responsibility onto property managers, but owners still need to be proactive in understanding regulations.
“The industry is doing its very best to educate owners, I think owners and tenants alike need to take practical responsibility for their own education,” she said.
“To go onto the internet and just educate yourself is not always adequate because there are multiple acts and multiple applications of those acts in different contexts. So you can't just go to chat GPT and go, ‘What's my asbestos responsibility?’.”
She said all stakeholders needed to remain informed about the latest rules.
“That means getting onto training sessions, having informed conversations with their property managers, tenants and owners, committing to transparent communication,” she concluded.
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